Clash of the Titans
by Catalina
Summary: Though Sephiroth has been defeated, AVALANCHE and the Turks still have to fight one last, final battle for the ultimate fate of the Planet. But this time, the stakes are higher, and Reno is in charge.
1. Prologue

Clash of the Titans

Prologue

_"This Glassy Surface"_

_Hanson:This Time Around_

_ _

_Don't wander through this glassy surface_

_Expecting to find more than me_

_'Cause what am I without a purpose_

_But a lone mirage to see_

Midgar.

A city with a disease.

A city with deep shadows in which a sea of purposeless people hide their meaningless natures behind the guise of the slums' working class.The slums' _nighttime_ working class, that is.The whores, the pimps, the dealers, the pushers—a plethora of worthless, purposeless people who only pretend to be leading lives worth living, never dreaming of liberty because the idea is totally inconceivable to them.They were born without dreams, without destinies, born into the cage of society with their wings already broken.They cannot sing; their voices have been tainted and torn up by screams and roughened by pollution of both the body and soul.They cannot run; to them, there is nowhere to run.Life has not smiled upon them kindly; it has hardened their hearts and stolen the remnants of their pride until they can hardly be called human due to their inhumane acts.They rot in their cages by their own will.They are vessels of darkness, hollows shells molded into the shapes of self-destructive creatures called humans.

And tonight, the girl is among them.

The filthy street is, for the most part, silent as she strides down it, long legs moving with an unusual confidence not native to these parts.Her movements are not provocative or inviting, but neither are they dominating and threatening.She moves with a simple grace that seems exclusive only to her as she passes almost artfully between patches of light and darkness on the battle-ridden street.Jet-black hair with so many fiery highlights that it looks a deep black-red underneath the lamplights hangs down to the small of her back.It hides her face with an eager darkness that rivals the shadows of the slums, barely allowing the soulless onlookers out on "business" a glimpse of her unnaturally pale skin.Her clothes are normal for this part of dilapidated, wartorn Midgar, but are out of place on her for some reason.Black fishnet hose through which the white pallor of her skin can be seen.Black boots with high heels that cover her muscular calves.A slinky, almost transparent dress that is too tight and too short to fit her properly.Her pale shoulders are left almost bare by the low cut neckline of the outfit, but once again, the inky black hair swoops down to cover them as protectively as the arm of a loving husband.

She is a beauty.She is fresh, young, and dressed like any other whore, yet no one approaches her.She does not belong here, though this well of lost souls, these streets of heartless ghosts, welcome her eagerly.She is an outcast among the outcasts, and she knows it as well as all the others do.She is faceless, nameless…purposeless as the rest.

Yet no one knows her here.The cutthroat thief on the rooftop does not know her.The pimp watching her under the streetlight as she passes doesn't know her.The harlot moaning in the dark alleyway with her drunken client does not know her.The murderer disposing of his nightly kill in the dumpster does not know her.The drug dealer in the shadows with his "delivery" does not know her.

All they know is that she does not belong; she is not one of them.For even though she is purposeless like them, even though she is dressed in their garb, she is not yet soulless.Her wings are weak and fragile, but not broken.No cage can contain her even as she wanders meaninglessly over the vast wastelands of her own soul.Her presence in their bottomless well is searching, calculating, a light in the darkness that they cannot understand or look upon.She exudes a peculiar aura of danger that is unmatched by the beastliest of beasts all around her.They are all apprehensive of this titan who wears their skin and clothes.But she makes no threatening moves and just passes them by without a trace of fear, so they go about their nightly business without aim or end, not knowing her and making no attempt to do so.

But the man stalking the girl knows her.He has a purpose, albeit a dark, heartless one, but he has one, and so he terrifies them more than anything.He leaves terror and sickly fear in his wake.

The cutthroat thief slinks back onto his rooftop for fear the man will see him.The pimp under the lamplight fades expertly into the shadows.The harlot shudders and guides her blissfully oblivious client deeper into the alleyway.The murderer contemplates jumping into the dumpster with his lifeless victim, but freezes like a deer caught in a pair of headlights instead.The drug dealer saunters away with his delivery hidden in his jacket coat.

The dark man pays them no heed; his only purpose is the girl, to catch the girl.She is crafty, sneaky.Her clothes are stolen.Her skin is borrowed.He knows she is no human.Already twice he has attempted to recapture her and failed.He won't fail again, but if he does, then he'll dust himself off and try again.He must fulfill his purpose.

The girl is aware of him.He never escapes her detection for an instant.She is afraid of him, but doesn't show it.Instead she feeds the fear to the maw of the echoing, empty void in her, the void that her purpose could have filled, if she had one.But she did have one at one time; this she knows, just simply knows."How" is not part of the question.Yet the girl feels almost beyond a doubt that though her time to serve the Planet had passed for the time being, it will arise again.She will wait; she can be very patient when needed.It is why she has managed to survive in this unfamiliar yet aching familiar place called Midgar.Yes, her purpose will soon reveal itself to her again, and she will be whole and happy and complete.And if it doesn't…then she will perish, a soulless empty shell like the pitiful caged birds of this ghastly slum with bars of poverty and frozen hearts.She has the deepest sympathy for them all, for the thief, for the pimp, for the harlot, for the murderer, for the dealer.She would help them if she could, but she cannot, not now, not when the stakes are so high…

The girl, who had been keeping a casual, unhurried pace until now, suddenly disappears into a dark, deserted alley and breaks into a run, keeping her footfalls silent with seasoned practice.Her midnight hair streams behind her; the shadows hide her face.She does not know why she runs, but what she does know is that she's moving towards a more congested, busy part of the Midgar slums.She knows that the dark man is following even though she cannot see him.

What she doesn't know is that she's about to meet her soul mate.


	2. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

# Clash of the Titans

## Chapter One

**_ _**

### The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

_He's the kind of guy who's always passing_

_But who never has time to spend_

_And he'll take you for a spin_

_And won't look within find out who you are_

_ _

_"Charm Attack"_

_Leona Ness_

The slums of Midgar never slept.

During the day, despite the prodigious piles of rubble that spotted the streets like humongous heaps of crap and the fact that half of the houses were in the process of rotting into nothing, children played in the dusty streets, tossing rubble balls back and forth under the watchful eyes of their parents.Adults visited a few of the stores that had survived the destruction of Meteor to buy food for dinner.Men and woman alike gathered at the numerous bars to sing praise to AVALANCHE, who saved the world from Sephiroth, to Diamond Weapon, who unconsciously killed the last of the money-hungry Shinras while laying siege on Midgar, and to Reeve Benavides, the former Shinra Urban Development Manager who was working on rebuilding the slums and cleaning up the streets.If one ignored the trash in the gutter, the run-down shops, and the general poverty everywhere, one could actually think that the slums during the day weren't so bad after all.

But then night fell and a whole new crowd came out.

Men with guns and knives out the kazoo.Women who would just as soon kiss you as kill you.Thieves.Murderers.Serial killers.Whores.Drug dealers.But the worst of all the night monsters was the Turks.

Reno Sasuki, in particular.

Leaning casually against the concrete wall behind him, the infamous flame-haired spitfire allowed a small smile to play across his thin lips as he watched the night crowd go about their business.It still amazed him that Sectors 3 and 2 had managed to avoid much of the destruction brought upon by Meteor.The people here bustled back and forth like nothing had ever happened, like Sephiroth had never attempted to become a god, like Cloud Strife and his little tag-alongs had never risked their sorry asses to save a world not worth saving, in Reno's opinion.He had pretty much given up on this shithole a long time ago.If he had been Meteor, he would have swallowed Midgar in one gulp, chewed it up and spit it back out, grinding it in the dust for good measure.The entire damn city was worthless.(_Me included,_ a little voice in the back of his mind said bitterly.)Just look at these people walking the streets now, the outcasts of society, only watching out for themselves.Did Cloud and Co. really think that such trashy people were worth saving?

"Hey, baby, looking for company?"

Speaking of trashy.

Reno snapped out of his reverie, something that was becoming a nasty habit as of late, his luminescent aquamarine eyes behind their dark sunglasses taking in all of the woman in front of him.Her skirt and tank top were so tight they left little to his fiendish imagination.The tops of her overly large breasts were exposed by the low neckline of her shirt, the crevasse in between them looking very enticing in the deepening shadows.Her face, which was by no means exceptionally beautiful, was done up with so many layers of makeup that she somewhat resembled a clown.Your typical slut of the slums.A whore hoping beyond hope to feed an empty space inside her that she thought sex could fill.But, hey, who was he to complain?He certainly never ended up on the short end of the stick.He was always in a win-win situation in regards to his numerous "flings."

Reno smiled slyly in response to her inviting question."Maybe," he said coyly.

Lips that swam with red lipstick pulled back over white teeth with fiendish anticipation."Just 'maybe,' big boy?" she asked flirtatiously, taking a step closer to him."What, ain't what I got good enough for ya?"

Reno looked her up and down in an obvious fashion, and she allowed his examination with an eager smile, thinking that she had another sucker and more gil to slip into her bra.

She stepped so close that Reno could smell the odor of her body, a mixture of cosmetic products, cheap perfume, and unwashed skin."Like what you see?" she breathed, pressing her body against his and placing her hands on his chest, red fingernails showing up vividly against the white fabric of his dress shirt.Reno stared at her calmly through the dark lenses of his sunglasses.

"Maybe," he repeated noncommittally, but with the same sly grin on his face.

The whore smiled and slid her probing hands underneath his navy blue suit jacket, running them along his sides."Bashful, now are we?" she murmured huskily as Reno continued staring at her placidly, though for some reason his stomach churned with disgust.The stench of the whore's hot body pressed against his was overpowering.Good God, what was that rank perfume she was wearing?The sewage bubbling up out of the manholes in dilapidated Sector 7 smelled better.Did all of the whores who he had paid to do their dark deeds in the past smell as bad as this?Not that he would have noticed; when one is drunk they don't notice much of anything.The world's just one great happy land of pleasures and numbness when he was drunk.Personally, Reno drank for the numbness part, but the pleasures were a nice side order.Very nice.

But tonight, he wasn't drunk.He didn't want numbness or pleasures.He just wasn't in the mood.

"Now," the harlot clinging to him continued, oblivious to the uncharacteristic revulsion that was simmering in Reno."Why don't you and me go find ourselves a nice—"

"Actually," Reno interrupted conversationally, a mischievous smile still on his lips, as if the world were a joke that only he understood."I don't think I would enjoy company tonight."

The whore stiffened in surprise; she had been sure this one had been the kind who would enjoy a heated tumble between the sheets, but she gave it one last shot, massaging the muscles of Reno's lower back with her overly thin hands."Oh, come on," he murmured right into his ear, pressing her body against his."You must feel so lonely."

"The heart is a lonely hunter," Reno replied, resisting the urge to gag as the smell of her unwashed hair went up his nose.

She laughed, hot breath plastering his ear."A poetic one, aren't we?I like that in a man.Don't worry; I don't bite."

_But I do.And my electric nightstick does, too._

"Are you hard of hearing?" Reno snapped angrily."I said I'd rather be alone tonight."

The whore drew back as if she had been slapped away, her entire demeanor changing from seductive and beguiling to prissy and offended, like an upstart cat that had just been shunned by its owner.Or in this case, an upstart bitch.

"Fine," she snipped, her painted eyebrows coming together in a scowl."You can go #@%$ yourself, then.It's your loss, big boy."

"I'm sure," Reno said with a grin as she huffed away, her spiked heels clicking on the broken pavement.He would certainly shed no tears over her hurt pride; she would manage to find another, more willing, less contemplative customer in less than a few minutes.

Sighing, the Turk ran his gloved hand through his untamed mane of fiery locks, dwelling a second on the elastic band that held the lower portion in a loose ponytail.He had no idea why he was even out tonight; there was nothing for him here on the street.The only reason he frequented this area of the slums was when he was looking for a bar or a quick fix; he certainly didn't journey here to admire the scenery.And he usually had Rude with him to keep him company, but tonight his best friend had been elsewhere… with Elena.

Reno allowed himself a half-bitter, half-amused smile as he thought about the burgeoning relationship between his two Turk friends, the only friends he had in the world.Soon, they would go off and get married and settle down and have kids, leaving him behind like a piece of unwanted garbage.

_Poor me.Nobody loves me anymore._

Rolling his aquamarine eyes at his idiotic thoughts, Reno pushed himself lazily off the wall, brushing dirt and concrete off of his back as he did so, and began to stroll down the street, expertly keen eyes hardened by the hard knock life taking in every person he passed.He had no idea who or what he was looking for, but he had come home from work today with the intense premonition that something big was going to go down tonight, and he had to be there.The feeling had been so forceful that he had suddenly envisioned himself as a marionette whose strings were being pulled by the powers that be, and those stupid ass gods or whoever they were wanted him to be here in the slums of Sector 3 without a trace of alcohol in his system and his nightstick strapped to his hip.

Well screw those gods.If they wanted him to be here in this condition, they were going to have to float down on angel's wings and tell him so, because he was through waiting around for trouble to fall in his lap.He was going to find a bar and get himself plastered, and if that messed up their divine plan and the whole great tapestry of life began to unravel because he was banging back tequila shots instead of fighting evil, then that was just too damn bad.

But no matter how much he thought of dismissing the call of Fate, or whatever the hell it was, Reno couldn't get rid of that tickling in the back of his mind, or that cold feeling on the back of his neck.There was a strange tingling between his shoulder blades, and he kept looking over his shoulder out of habit, trying to pinpoint the sniper or hitman that he knew must be watching him.But each time he turned around, there was no one there, and it was seriously beginning to grind his nerves.

There had once been a time when he would have had no reason to be this jumpy, a time when the tyrannical corporation of Shinra Inc. had been the ruler of the world, with its notorious hitmen, the fruits of its womb, the world-renowned Turks to enforce its orders, increase its ranks, and eliminate all threats by any and every means necessary.That had been the good life, when Reno was a devil in a blue suit, his pockets lined with gil, his head held high, and his walk casual and cocky.

Times were different now.The blue suit that had once incited fear in all who laid eyes on it now incited nothing at all to the onlookers.The people who saw the lonely, lean, flame-haired man walking the streets felt nothing for him, not fear, not hatred, just nothing.Poor guy, still wearing that old suit like Shinra still exists.Poor guy, still suffering from illusions of grandeur.Poor guy, holding onto the past and expecting us to run screaming from the sight of the infamous _Reno of the Turks_, one of three of the callous and ethically retarded villains left in the world.

Sorry, my idiotic brothers and sisters.I don't wear this suit because I want to.After being in Shinra for – oh god, how many years was it? – and donning the same damn suit day after day, you simply run out of things to wear.I wish there was some deeper significance behind this blue suit, some deeper meaning behind this eyes, some purpose in this empty soul, but there isn't.Too bad.Tough titties.

_ _

Jostling past the people on the street with only a cursory glance, Reno's eyes roved the streets around him, spotting several overflowing bars just looking for more hungry flies to draw in to their maws, which were filled with drunken bliss and pleasures of every sort.He walked past these bars, telling himself that he was looking for one that would have so many mangy lowlifes inside.He was in no mood to deal with anyone tonight.

His exhaustive search was rudely interrupted when an old woman dressed in rags and covered in grime suddenly rushed up to him, waving her hands madly.She hobbled as most old woman did, hunched pitifully over a cane made of rotting wood.Her back was horribly warped, hunched and twisted like a sculpting experiment gone all wrong.The snow-white hair that adorned her head like colorless straw stood up on end, like the tuft of a dandelion.All in all, she made for quite a startling sight as she hobbled up to Reno with a vigor that most humans her age had lost long ago.

"Sir!" the crazy hag cried, the mad light of insanity blazing in her washed out eyes as she looked wildly up at Reno."Young man!Beware!The end is near!"

Reno grinned, staring condescendingly down at Old Bertha, Sector Three's resident lunatic."Is that so, grandma?" he asked mockingly."The end is near?Like it was last week?"

Her half-blind, crazed eyes narrowed, her mouth puckering as if she had eaten something sour."Such youthful impertinence, Flame Hair; I know who you are.I know what you do.The blood on your hands does not escape these blind eyes, Reno of the Turks."

Reno raised an auburn eyebrow, his curiosity piqued, wondering how the loony old fart knew who he was.

Bertha laughed maniacally, proudly displaying all of her five rotted teeth."Have not seen you around here in many nights, Turk," she cackled."Then, BOOM, I look up and there you be, the Phoenix risen from the ashes to fulfill your purpose."

Reno was stunned into silence by the words dropping from her withered lips.The thought suddenly crossed his mind that maybe the old hag wasn't quite as crazy as people made her out to be.

Bertha, in the meantime, was rambling on."Yes!" she cried with insanity gleaming in her every feature."I just sitting there in my corner when the voices tell me 'Bertha, rise and tell the world!Share your knowledge with the ignorant and naïve!Let the fiery truth burn the darkness away!And bring back three burritos with cheese for supper!'"

"What?" Reno snapped, surprised by the absurd statement."Burritos?What the hell are you talking about?"

Bertha's old wrinkly hand suddenly lashed forward and grabbed the lapel of his coat, grasping the cloth tightly, her knuckles crackling like miniature fireworks as she did so."You listen here, Fire Top," she suddenly seethed, the mad light of lunacy burning in her eyes."Even the aliens in my head get hungry, too!Who am I to deny them the right to eat?!"

"No one," Reno agreed, staring mockingly down into the hag's wrinkled face."The oddball life forms living in my anus get hungry, too.Only they don't like beans in their burritos.It gives them gas and acid indigestion."

The old hag cackled madly, laughing with such heartiness that she ended up coughing and wheezing in between sounds of mirth."Funny boy!" she cried with insane happiness."Funny, funny boy!Be cautious, Fire Hair, be brave, and be bold!Be loving and be wise!"

Reno gave a melodramatic sigh and put his gloved hands on his hips."Listen here, grandma, do you have any earthly idea how hard it is to be all those things at the same time?Who do you think I am, Superman?"

Bertha suddenly shook the end of her rotting cane in his face, her washed out eyes widening with some strange emotion that was exclusive only to the insane."Beware, Turk!" she whispered-screamed, leaning in so close that he could smell her rank breath."You are no Superman, but they shall expect you to be.Be strong and of good courage.Love shall conquer all."

"Sure thing.Whatever you say," he retorted sarcastically, rolling his aquamarine eyes.

"THE TITANS ARE COMING!" Bertha suddenly screeched, hands held upwards to the sky, spit flying from her mouth as Reno took an unconscious step backwards."THE TITANS ARE COMING!THE TITANS ARE COMING!"

The old hag suddenly sped off, shuffling along the street as fast as her withered and warped feet would carry her.Her dark rags flapped around her bent form like a demon's wings as she passed by indifferent onlookers screaming, "THE TITANS ARE COMING!GOD SAVE US!SEND HER DOWN TO US!HAND OVER THE BURRITOS WITH CHEESE!"

Reno stood calmly on the sidewalk with his hands still on his hips, one resting near his nightstick.The crone shuffled and hobbled along, her cries turning into the senseless mutterings about burritos with cheese as her ghastly figure vanished around a corner.No one she passed even gave her a second glance; such sights in the slums were commonplace and not worth a quota of their precious time.Reno alone acknowledged the passing of Old Bertha, watching as her warped form disappeared from view and reflecting briefly on her strange mixture of seemingly sincere warnings about Fate and Titans that sharply contrasted with her insane phrases about aliens and burritos.

"Crazy old broad," he muttered under his breath, and went along his way, forgetting about Old Bertha and her strange predictions of the future.

But once moving again, with his eyes scanning the streets for – god, he didn't even know what he was looking for anymore – Reno once again felt his thoughts becoming unusually contemplative.Where was Rude when he needed him?Though the prideful Turk wouldn't have admitted it to anyone, including himself, he depended a lot on his levelheaded, calm best friend to help him think things through and make sure his brash actions and sometimes crazy impulses didn't get him into trouble.Where Reno was fire, Rude was most definitely ice, but as far as the two Turks went, those two elements meshed well.What Reno lacked in long-term planning and detached assessments, Rude made up for.And what the tall, bald-headed Turk lacked in quick thinking and smooth talking, Reno more than sufficed.In short, Reno would have definitely preferred it if Rude were with him tonight to help him make sense of these crazy, fate-driven urges that he was experiencing.

Even if it had been Elena accompanying him instead of Rude, Reno still would have been more comfortable.The redheaded Turk allowed a small smile to creep across his lips as he thought of how Elena might have reacted if she had encountered Old Bertha.Knowing the rookie Turk, who was still extremely wet behind the ears and of an incredibly sensitive breed, would have offered of pay for the burritos to feed her aliens or something completely ridiculous like that.But despite her obvious faults, Reno loved Elena like a sister and was glad in his heart of hearts that she and Rude had found each other.

A sudden clamoring from across the streets jolted Reno out of his thoughts.Turning his head to look at the source of the noise, he was amused to see that a brawl had broken out in front of a bar across from where Reno was walking.Dingy-looking men and woman all gathered in one huge, seething mob, trying to get a glimpse of the action like they had nothing better to do than watch two lowlifes beat each other senseless and mess up their probably already messed up faces.

"Maybe the Planet sent me here to stop drunkards from killing each other?" he muttered, knowing he was talking to himself like crazy Old Bertha and not caring."But what's two dead drunkards any—oof!Hey!Watch it!"

Reno let out a cry of surprise as he felt something collide with his right side while his eyes were trained on the fight across the street.His hand immediately flew to rest on his nightstick as his paranoid mind, the mind of a Turk, instantly fed him the worst case scenario – that he was being attacked by an enemy that he, with his head up his ass, hadn't managed to detect.For a moment, he fought to maintain his balance, worn boots skidding on the cracked sidewalk before he managed to keep himself on his feet.

"Now, who the hell do you think you—" he started to say, but then his eyes fell on his fearsome "attacker" and his breath caught in his throat.

Lying at his feet was the most striking female he had ever seen.

Her hair was a dynamic veil of ebony locks shot through with defiant strands of blood red that hung around her shoulders and down her back, billowing gently in the dry, rank breezes of the slums.Her thin dress ended way above her knees, exposing creamy legs clad in fishnet hose.Calf-high boots with huge heels accented her shapely legs, and the filtered light from the bars across the street eagerly touched her unnaturally pale skin, giving her a ghostly look, like she was some unheard of haunt that had been risen from her rest to land at his feet and make his heartbeats become irregular and fast.

The mysterious girl shifted, bracing her weight on the ground with one of her slender hands and lifted her face to look up at him, giving him yet another shock.Her face was nothing short of beautiful with a full mouth, short nose, and graceful eyebrows, but what really caught his attention and for some reason sent shivers down his spine were her eyes.

The first thing that came to Reno's mind was that this girl was another one of Hojo's scions and had been injected with Mako, making her golden eyes even more striking, but he realized that the glow in those honey-colored orbs didn't come from any Mako, but from something else.Their luminescence wasn't synthetic or man-made; it was natural.Suddenly, Reno was reminded of someone, of that Cetra girl Tseng had had a thing for, the one that Sephiroth killed…what was her name again?Oh yeah, Aeris.

The purposeless girl looked up from her seat on the hard, cracked ground and studied the man standing over her with a wariness that didn't show in her golden eyes.There was something about this man, something very familiar that she couldn't put her finger on.He was perhaps the most striking representative of the male sex that she had ever seen, even more so than Zack.Hair that was woven of liquid fire stuck up in rebellious spikes from the top of his head; a longish ponytail hung over his shoulder like a curious pet.Skin sculpted from white marble seemed to glow in the meager light, flawless to her keen eyes except for two short scars that had been deliberately carved, either by him or by some opponent, close to the tender flesh that surrounded his eyes, whose iridescent glow his dark-tinted sunglasses couldn't quite hide.

His blue suit and white button-down dress shirt were rumpled and sloppy-looking, but for some reason it only accented his lanky limbs, which looked slender yet solid.The V created by his unbuttoned shirt collar exposed a lean chest and strong-looking collarbone.(She had always loved seeing collarbones on men; she didn't know why).The only thing that kept her from being smitten on the spot by this strange man with hair the color of the Phoenix's feathers was the peculiar gleam in his eyes that told her he was dangerous and the fact that he obviously had some sort of weapon resting in a holster strapped to his right hip.One of his gloved hands hovered menacingly on the handle of it, and the girl experienced a momentary fright when she thought that he was going to attack her, but when he kept staring down at her like she was some sort of ghost, she slowly rose to her feet, brushing gravel off of her "borrowed" dress as she did so.

"Forgive me for running into you, sir," she apologized politely."I assure you it was an accident."

Reno blinked as the girl's husky, beautiful voice saying those coldly polite words hit him like a slap in the face.Who was this girl anyways?She was dressed like any other whore, but any other whore didn't spout formal-sounding phrases like "forgive me" or "sir" or "I assure you."

"No problem," he muttered."Just don't let it happen again."Studying her more closely, thinking that if she _was_ a whore, she was cleanest, freshest-looking one he'd ever seen.Her face was devoid of anything resembling makeup, and her honey-colored eyes, as they gazed back at him impassively, had a certain gleam to them that he hadn't seen before in anyone.

She's a fish out of water; she doesn't belong here.

"Why were you running anyways?" he suddenly asked, trying not to let his gaze stray to the enticing crevasse between her breasts as he spoke to her, knowing that if she wasn't a harlot, she wasn't going to like his eyes wandering.

She blinked, thick dark lashes flashing closed over her eyes."Excuse me, sir?"

There's that polite "sir" again.Where they hell did this chick come from and what is she doing in the slums?

"Running," he repeated impatiently, releasing his grip on his nightstick and gesturing to the dark alley on his right."You came blowing out of there like there was no tomorrow.Why were you running?"

The mysterious girl cast a quick glance towards the dark alley as if noticing its presence for the first time."Oh," she said quietly."I'm dreadfully sorry for running into you, sir.I was in a hurry and not looking where I was going.I'll make sure to be more careful in the future.Good night."

She turned and started to walk away.

"Hey!" Reno called, surprising himself with how desperate he sounded.

She whirled to look at him again, something resembling mistrust flickering in her eyes."Was there something else, sir?" she asked with cold politeness, cocking her head to the side as if in a gesture of curiosity.

Reno narrowed his eyes and took a step closer to her, examining her intently as she met his gaze without fear.Even with her heels on, the mysterious girl was nearly a whole head shorter than him.

"You're not from around here, are you?" he blurted before he could stop himself.

She raised a dark eyebrow."No, sir.I am not."She didn't elaborate any further, and the look in her eyes told him that she didn't think very highly of his prying.

Reno didn't care."Where are you from?"

The girl shook her head, briefly closing her golden eyes."With all due respect, sir, I would rather not discuss such things with strangers.I need to be on my way."

Reno reached out to grab her arm, suddenly as desperate to keep her there as he had been a few moments before, but she jerked back a step with a speed that surprised him as much as it annoyed him.What aggravated him even more was that the tingling in the back of his head had turned into a full-fledged buzzing sound that bordered on pain, and for some unknown reason, he felt that this strange girl who dressed like a whore and talked like an executive businesswoman but looked like an dark angel had something to do with his plight.

"Wait a minute, honey," he said, trying to ignore the obviously suspicious gaze the girl was drilling him with.His little arm-grabbing stunt hadn't impressed her.

"Really, sir, I need to—" she started to say.

"Do I know you from somewhere?" he asked suddenly, removing his glasses and staring at her with his Mako eyes, as if baring them for her to see would make her trust him."I feel like I've met you before."

The girl's eyes widened slightly upon seeing the glow in his eyes, and she was silent for a moment as Reno waited anxiously for her answer, but she slowly shook her head."No, sir," she said quietly."I'm afraid that I don't recall ever seeing you before in my life."

She's lying.

"Are you sure?" he asked in a low voice, taking another step closer to her, eyes gleaming.

She nodded quickly, saying nothing more.It appeared as if she was eager for this conversation to end, but she didn't make a move to run away again.

Reno was suddenly at a loss for words.He felt the irrational need to keep this girl close to him.But how was he supposed to tell her that?He needed to get her to trust him first, which was looking to be very difficult.Reno could usually sweet talk any woman into committing murder for him, but as he looked into the golden eyes of this mysterious stranger, he realized that getting her to even come near him was going to take some work.

Go for it, buddy, use your charm and wit.

"Um," he stammered, running a hand through his hair, suddenly feeling as if his tongue was tied in knots."Look, uh, I know this is kind of, um, sudden, you know, and all, but, uh, what I'm tryin' to say is…"

The girl waited patiently for him to finish his broken sentence, her eyes impassive.

Reno suddenly found himself drowning in the shimmering golden color of her eyes._Not human,_ he suddenly thought, _not human at all._

"I'd like to take you home with me," he blurted out."So if you'd just—"

Her face darkened.

Uh-oh.Mistake.Big mistake.Great going, ace.Way to use that good old "charm attack" of yours.

"Excuse me, _sir_," she said, her voice acquiring a cold, hard edge as her eyes glittered with rage."But I'm afraid you've mistaken me for someone, for something, that I am most definitely not.For the last time, good night."

That said, she spun and stalked away, striding defiantly across the street, completely ignoring the brawl that still had yet to let up.Reno, stunned and disbelieving, could do nothing but stand there and watch her go, her hair shimmering in the fractured light of the slums, legs moving with long, graceful strides.What the hell had just happened?She had misunderstood his intentions completely, and now she was gone!For a moment Reno felt that infuriatingly irrational panic rise up in him as the need to keep the girl in his sights, if not in his arms, suddenly bloomed in his soul like the poisonous black roses rumored to grow somewhere in the Nibelheim mountains.He opened his mouth to call to her, to tell her to come back.His legs tensed, ready to run after her, but something stopped him.

There was an uncomfortable tugging in the back of his mind, akin the buzzing, lightheaded feeling that had been plaguing him all night, but only far, far more unpleasant.The itchy buzzing feeling had been aggravatingly persistent, but this new sensation awakened in him a deep alarm from the hidden recesses of his human nature, or what the hard knock life of a Turk had left of it.It was this alarm that kept his feet locked into their position on the sidewalk, glasses still dangling from his long fingers as his calm Mako eyes traced the vanishing figure of the girl as she moved across and down the street away from him, only looking back once at the strange man in the disheveled suit.For a moment, Reno fancied that he could see the glitter of her golden eyes flash in the darkness, but by then she had already turned away.

Still, his keen eyes tracked her with inhuman intensity, squinting only slightly in the darkness as he saw her turn towards a dark alleyway…and take off running.

_The hell?Why did she start running yet again?All the stupid hoochie is gonna do is run over some other scruffy lowlife, and then she'll leave him standing in the dust with his mouth hanging open like me over here.Why was she running?_

Then the internal alarm in his head tugged at his attention again, and a thought suddenly occurred to Reno that probably would have come to light earlier, had he been focused less on the girl and more on the situation at hand.The question wasn't why she was running – it was _what_ was she running _from_?

Eyes impassive, Reno replaced the glasses on his face, settling them on the bridge of his nose.He turned to stare into the inky darkness of the alley from which the girl had first emerged from, but even his Mako-enhanced senses could discern nothing from the blackness, certainly not the source of the jangling presence of discord in his mind.But if he had learned one thing in all his years as a street rat and as a Turk, it was that just because you couldn't see your enemy didn't mean that they weren't there.In fact, the greatest enemies were the ones that went unseen to one's eye for all eternity.

Hand instinctively coming to rest on his nightstick, Reno gave one last glare to the dark, deserted alley before slinking with liquid grace into the shadows cast by the wall in front of him, pressing himself into the crevasse between an old trash can and a short stairway of shattered concrete stairs that used to belong to an apartment complex but was now a crack house.Oblivious to the miscellaneous selection of nasty items that dotted the ground, Reno seated himself on the ground, trying to appear to be just your regular drunkard inebriated in the street.It wasn't too hard for him; he'd had lots of practice.

Though he now had no view whatsoever of the alley the girl had first emerged from, that same _something_ in the back of his mind that had made him uncharacteristically desperate to keep the mysterious stranger in close proximity to him was now telling him that remaining in this place and waiting was now the best course of action.

_You know,_ he thought grumpily._I've had it up to here with this intuition crap.I have much better ways to spend my time than sitting here in the shadows, waiting for something to come out of alley, and all because of one weirdo girl who ran me over simply by coincidence.I don't wanna be here.I have my own life, you know.People to do, things to see…_

Just then the tugging in his mind suddenly manifested into a full-fledged psychotic demon that beat at his tender head with its claw-tipped wings, its screeching, unearthly voice echoing in Reno's ears.Though his every instinct told him to either prepare to fight or get the hell out of there, some unknown force that had manipulated his every action that night kept him adhered in his little nook against the wall, watching and waiting for he had no idea what.

He heard footsteps, slow, calculated footsteps, the footsteps of one that would rather not be heard, but who really doesn't care if they are heard.Reno's heart began to thunder in his chest as the battle adrenaline coursed through his system, the prelude of the high that usually accompanied him in most confrontations.

The footsteps got closer.Reno's head throbbed with a ceaseless pain as he shifted in his hiding place, keeping his hand close to his nightstick and staring at the side of alleyway out of the corner of his eye, suddenly dreading what he would see.

The ringing cry in Reno's brain crescendoed to an almost unbearable degree.He gritted his teeth in pain, viciously refusing to succumb to the agony that had no source other than his own madness.

Then the Stalker emerged from the alley, and the demon battering at his brain suddenly let out a horrendous screech, and Reno had to exert every ounce of iron will he had in his lanky form to keep from purging a similar cry from his throat.As a Turk, he had seen many assassins in his life.Hell, he saw the phantom of one every time he looked in the mirror.And this Stalker, this dark man, looked like your regular run-of-the-mill sniper or hitman.He wore a long, black coat that reached to the backs of his knees and surrounded his entire form like a protective shroud.The collar of the garment was turned up sharply, hiding the man's entire neck and profile from Reno's furtive glances.A black fedora hat cast a deep shadow on his face, effectively concealing anything that Reno's shrewd vision could identify about this stranger.He had his hands shoved in his pockets.He wore black boots and dark pants on his legs.Normal assassin, perfectly bland and average.

But Reno knew better.Normal assassins didn't make his head throb with their very presence.Normal assassins, even that ex-Turk on Cloud's team, Vincent Valentine, never had incited this much fear in one of their brethren, especially someone like Reno, who had committed his first murder at age ten.There was a sense of foreboding about this dark man that charged the air with unseen electricity, making Reno shudder slightly in his little hiding place not five feet away from where the man was standing at the mouth of the alley, wrapped in shadows.

Sweat rolled down his pale face in beads, trickling mischievously into his eyes, but he didn't dare take his vision away from the figure of the Stalker, who simply stood there, so still, so lifeless, like an ominous statue that nature had forgotten.

_Please don't let him see me,_ Reno suddenly thought fearfully, then mentally slapped himself for being such a pussy.Who the hell was this freak anyways, who made him feel so much fear?

Then the Stalker shifted slightly, causing Reno's heart to skip a beat.His sweaty grip tightened on his nightstick, certain that the man had become wise to his presence close by.But the unearthly creature didn't even look Reno's way, not even a glance.Instead, he crossed the street fearlessly, a shadow among shadows.The brawl at the bar across the road had stopped long ago, and only a few drunkards now remained outside the doors, too inebriated to move their worthless asses back inside.But that certain something about the dark man that had terrified Reno out of his wits pierced their alcohol-clouded brains, and each of them looked up in terror as the Stalker passed them by, his coat rustling silently around his legs.

Reno watched from his hiding spot across the street as one of the drunkards scrambled to his feet, trying to get his uncoordinated limbs into some semblance of motion.Needless to say, the man failed miserably, not even able to take one step before falling flat on his face in the street with a whimpering cry.

The Stalker passed him without a glance, traveling down the length of the street until he reached the alley that the girl had run off down a few minutes ago.With the same unnatural, relentless ease with which he had crossed the street and brushed past the terrified drunk, he turned left smoothly and disappeared into the alley.Reno's suspicions were confirmed.

The girl was being followed.

The pain in Reno's mind suddenly eased, and he lifted himself shakily to his feet, hand still gripping his nightstick.His knees were weak with the aftermath of fear and adrenaline, and there was a sheen of sweat on his upper lip and high forehead.Lifting his arm, he defiantly wiped away this fear-sweat with one deft swipe.His jaw clenched in determination, and his aquamarine eyes narrowed behind the dark lenses of his glasses.

Okay, freako, you almost made me piss in my pants, but this is far from over.The night is still young, and I'm on the prowl.You aren't king of this turf, not tonight, not ever.And you can't have her.I'll see to that.You just wait, my friend.Just wait.


	3. Cat and Mouse

**Clash of the Titans**

**Chapter Two**

** **

**_Cat and Mouse_**

**_ _**

_I'm on the hunt_

_I'm after you…_

_And I'm hungry_

_Like the wolf_

_ _

_"Hungry Like the Wolf"_

_Duran Duran_

The chase was on.

At the front of the line, the primary prey, was the mysterious girl with the hair of black fire and eyes of liquid gold.She ran aimlessly and without end, her boots with their way-too-high heels beating silently against the cracked concrete as she leapt nimbly over obstacles and maneuvered around rubble piles gracefully.The polluted air of the slums burned her lungs; she was already beginning to tire.This maze of deserted streets and dark alleyways that looked identical to the next never seemed to end.The girl could have been running in circles for all she knew.Yet, she would not give in, not tonight, not ever.The dark man was somewhere behind her, following her.She just _knew_ he was there, and he would stop at nothing to get her.

Propelled by these thoughts, the girl leapt over another overturned trashcan and ran down another alley.

Second in line, the man in the middle, the first hunter, was the Stalker that cloaked himself in shadows.He walked after the girl without any particular hurry, hands in his deep pockets and coat flapping gently behind him.His dark purpose was scalded into his mind, written on the backs of his eyelids, inescapable.The girl was all he knew.She wouldn't get away this time.The maze and rubble of this deserted, dark section of the slums that she had fled into would be her own undoing.The dark man didn't know this place, but already it was becoming familiar to him.There was no escape, for the girl or for him.

Honing into that unnamable sense that pulsed in his brain and told him when the girl was near, the Stalker stepped nimbly over an overturned trashcan and walked down an alley, hot on the girl's trail.

But the line of hunters and hunted ended there, for the final player in the deadly game of cat and mouse was above both the dark man and the girl.On the rooftops of the demolished buildings that composed the "Rat's Maze," as he had called it when he was young, Reno leapt from building to building, never slipping, never stumbling, his agile legs allowing him to sail through the air with stunning ease.His red ponytail streamed behind him like a battle banner, and he had pushed his sunglasses up on his head to allow his night vision to work to its fullest potential.His electric nightstick was clutched loosely in his left hand while the right hovered in the air for balance as he ran across another rooftop, glanced in the alley below, and, seeing nothing, leapt across to the other rooftop.

What his colleagues and enemies alike were always shocked or surprised to find out was that Reno was stunningly agile despite his considerable height.Whereas long legs and lanky bodies tended to make most men gangly and clumsy, Reno was extremely coordinated, able to perform tight maneuvers that most of his fellow Turks couldn't.Even Elena and Rude had been a bit startled to find out that Reno was a "gymnast," as they had so charmingly put it. Reno had snorted disdainfully at the term.Just because he could do backflips, back handsprings, round offs, walkovers, and all sorts of other moves didn't make him a "gymnast."Gymnasts used their abilities for show.Reno used his for fighting.Major difference, boys and girls.

Anyways, gymnastic abilities or not, Reno employed this unique talent of his to leap effortlessly from rooftop to rooftop.He had played in this maze ever since he was a kid, when he and his fellow gang members used to gamble with their lives in a fiendish game of "hide and seek" in the Rat's Maze.Winners took all; losers ended up dead.Needless to say, Reno had learned the terrain of this deserted maze long ago to ensure his own survival against rival gangs up to playing deadly games with him and his hoodlum buddies.

Reno's worn boots crunched loudly against the loose rubble that was always present on the tops of the buildings, and for a moment, he nearly slipped and fell on his behind, but he regained his balance at the last moment with a seasoned practice that was a refugee from his dark adolescence.Sprinting to the right side of the rooftop, Reno poked his head over the edge and looked down.Another deserted alley.Dammit!Where they hell were they?

He had followed the Stalker for as long as he dared, staying far enough behind so as to avoid detection by the creature that had incited so much fear in him.Employing that tactic, however, had almost made him lose the trail of the dark man several times, and it hadn't taken long for Reno to realize that he couldn't stalk a Stalker on the ground.So he had taken to the rooftops using a dilapidated fire escape attached to one of the old apartment buildings.He found it was much easier to track the girl and the Stalker that way, and once he saw that the mysterious woman was headed towards the Rat's Maze, he couldn't believe his luck.Reno knew that labyrinth like the back of his hand, and chances were that the girl and the dark man didn't.He would have the advantage, and with a lot of skill and a bit of luck, he would be able to get to the girl before the Stalker could.

But once he had entered the maze, he had suddenly lost track of both the girl and the dark man.Shadows and darkness seemed to be their elements, and they brandished them proudly, using them as cover to hide behind.Reno had been in this maze for half an hour already, and he hadn't seen a sign of either of them.

Running along the edge of the building, Reno constantly checked the alleys beneath, searching for the moving figures of the girl or the Stalker.Seeing nothing but trash and more trash, he cursed under his breath and prepared to leap to the next building.But suddenly, his feet froze where they were, and the buzzing in his head rose up once again, but this time, it had a memory of the recent past as its companion.

_Sitting on the bumper of the ambulance, Reno fingered his busted lip gingerly with his left hand, trying to ignore the throbbing pain all over his body.His right arm was in a crudely constructed sling, and he had a bandage tied around his inured thigh, blood from the bullet wound already seeping through the white linen.A group of SOLDIERS walked by, hardened and solid from their training and eager to do the job that the Turks had failed to do.One of them, a tall creature with spiky black hair and laughing blue eyes, gave Reno a half amused/half sympathetic look as he walked by, leading his squad._

_ _

_"Are you alright, man?" he asked lightly, as if the two were old friends._

_ _

_"@%$# off," Reno spat, not caring that talking to the leader in front of his colleagues in such a fashion might incite a brawl when he most definitely was in no condition for one._

_ _

_The SOLDIER's dark brows drew together in a scowl, and he folded his arms across the fabric of his dark purple uniform."Hey, Turk, I was just trying to be congenial.We all make mistakes, you know."_

_ _

_Reno just glared at him._

_ _

_"Zack," a deep, authoritative voice suddenly spoke up.Reno's heart sank when he saw Tseng striding towards them, suit immaculate as always, not a hair out of place.The redheaded Turk lowered his head in shame.How humiliating!He didn't want Tseng to see him like this!Especially when Tseng had been the one who had trusted Reno to lead this mission, something that he had failed at, miserably._

_ _

_Zack turned and looked at the approaching Turk Commander with a mixture of respect and apathy.Turks and SOLDIERS were not friends, but neither were they enemies."Yes sir, Mr. Tseng?" he asked flatly._

_ _

_Tseng looked at him coolly, dark Wutainese eyes revealing nothing."I believe you have a mission to carry out."_

_ _

_Zack nodded."Yes, sir, we do."With one last glance at the shameful Reno, he turned back to his squad."Alright, everyone!Move out!Defense team, secure the perimeter!Attack team, come with me!Let's kick some ass!"_

_ _

_A chorus of affirmative cheers erupted from the SOLDIERS as they quickly strode away, leaving Reno alone with Tseng.Dozens of medics ran by, attending to the injured Turks and Shinra soldiers that had been under Reno's command.Red, white, and blue lights from the ambulances blazed brightly, bathing the entire scene with their fluorescent lights, but Reno saw none of it.He looked down at his scuffed shoes and avoided Tseng's gaze._

_ _

_"Rude's in the hospital," Reno muttered._

_ _

_"I know," Tseng replied calmly._

_ _

_"He got shot in the stomach," Reno continued in a hollow voice, remembering the intense look of pain on his friend's face as the terrorist's bullet pierced his skin._

_ _

_"I know," Tseng replied again."He'll make it; Rude's a very strong man."_

_ _

_Reno nodded numbly, a few stray locks of hair tumbling around his face and into his Mako eyes."It's all my fault, Tseng," he said flatly."I was in command; I was responsible for their lives."_

_ _

_"Yes, you were," Tseng agreed, putting his hands in his pockets, the epitome of casualty, as if several of his fellow Turks weren't lying wounded…or worse…all around him."What happened, Reno?"_

_ _

_The younger man hung his head."I thought the warehouse was empty.I did a thorough check like I was supposed to.There was no one there, and all was quiet.I gave the signal to move in and…well, you can see what happened."_

_ _

_"The warehouse was empty?" Tseng echoed._

_ _

_Reno nodded miserably, the cries of his allies still fresh in his ears."Or, at least I thought was.Apparently I was wrong."_

_ _

_Tseng was silent for a few seconds as Reno dreaded what his superior would say to him.He wouldn't hold it against Tseng if he turned Reno back out onto the streets again.Reno was starting to think that that was where he belonged._

_ _

_"Look at me, Reno," Tseng suddenly said.Reno reluctantly turned his gaze upwards and was surprised to see that his commander looked more amused than angry."You checked the warehouse thoroughly?" he asked calmly._

_ _

_Reno nodded."Yes."_

_ _

_"Did you check it again?"_

_ _

_Reno hesitated."No, but—"_

_ _

_Tseng shook his head firmly, black hair turned a deep bloody red by the ambulance lights."No, buts, Reno.You should have checked it twice, maybe three times.That's where you went wrong.These terrorists are not the drug-addicted, alcohol-wasted thugs that you're used to.These guys are crafty and smart, understand?They know when and where to hide.Don't be fooled by appearances and you won't make this mistake again.A Malayan proverb states, 'Don't think there are no crocodiles just because the water is calm.'Remember that, you hear?"_

_ _

_Reno nodded respectfully."Yes, sir.I'll remember."_

And he did remember.

Spurred on by the extraordinarily vivid memory of his late mentor and the buzzing in the back of his head, Reno ran stealthily back to the right side of the rooftop, and looked down.For a moment, he wondered if he had just made the effort for nothing; the alley was just as empty as it was before, and he was losing time!Serves him right for living in the past instead of the present.

But then he saw movement in the darkness near the mouth of the alley, and suddenly, the mysterious girl emerged from the shadows and into a patch of moonlight.Her booted legs in their fishnet hose pumped steadily with long, nimble strides, but Reno could tell that she was already beginning to tire.Sweat glistened on her face, trickling down between her breasts.She wouldn't be able to go on much longer.

_I can't believe it!I found her!That's another one for you, Tseng._

Heart pounding with excitement, Reno moved down the rooftop, matching the girl's pace as she ran down the alley below.She came upon an intersection, but instead of taking one of the side routes, she kept going straight, leaping to avoid overturned dumpsters.Reno quickly leapt to the next building, eyes trained on the girl and the girl alone.So far, he had seen no sign of the dark man, which he considered a blessing even though he knew it wouldn't last forever.The girl was obviously lost and in a slight panic.The Stalker would find her if she kept on going like this.But now that Reno had her in his sights, all he had to do was predict her path and intercept her before the dark man could catch her.The only problem would be that if the girl was choosing her paths at random, then Reno would be shit out of luck.He wasn't about to jump off the roof and into an alley and break both of his ankles just so he could get her attention.Come on, he wasn't that desperate.

Or was he?

Thankfully, after five more minutes of following the girl, he saw that she did indeed have a pattern to her routes.She would run straight for every two blocks, then take a left, then run straight for another two blocks, and hang a right.This pattern in mind, Reno quickly anticipated what street he could intercept her on and raced to the rooftop of the building, praying that the girl held true to her routine.

Leaping off the rooftop and onto the wasted fire escape with his nightstick clutched in his left hand, Reno pounded down the stairs, ignoring the squeaks and creaks of protest that the fire escape gave.The thing wouldn't break; it hadn't when he had climbed it ten years ago, and it sure as hell wouldn't now!

Reno was just landing on the trash-ridden concrete of the alley when the girl came blowing around the corner like the hounds of hell were after her.With her head turned around to check if the dark man was following her, she completely missed Reno standing in front of her and plowed right into his chest with a startled cry.She bounced back and would have fallen if Reno hadn't slung his right arm around her waist and crushed her to his body.

"Hey, baby," he said with a flirtatious grin."Fancy seeing you here, huh?"

Shocked out of her mind, the girl looked up into a pair of glowing Mako blue eyes that shimmered beautifully in the dark, free from their shield of dark sunglasses.A strand of blood red hair suddenly flopped down into one of them, and moonlight glinted on the shiny surface of a pair of twin scars on his cheeks.

The girl's golden eyes widened with a mixture of shock, awe, and fear."You!" she gasped, recognizing the man she had run into on the street, the one that had thought her to be a harlot.How had he managed to find her?

"Me," Reno agreed cheerfully, winking at the girl still crushed against his chest, her bare arms pinned between them."Miss me, sweetheart?"

The girl's dark brows drew together in a scowl, and she jerked sharply against the protective circle of his arms."What are you doing here?" she demanded."Let me go!"

"Sure thing," Reno replied casually."Just as soon as we get away from that dude who's stalking you."

The girl's mouth fell open.This man wasn't anything like had seemed!"You saw him!" she gasped, craning her neck slightly backwards so she could look into his face."But how could you have managed such a thing?!How did you know he was following me?!Who are you?"

Something suddenly tugged at Reno's mind again."Tell you later, baby," he said quickly, casting a nervous glance around him."We need to get out of here."

The girl stiffened in his arms."I don't have to go anywhere with you," she said flatly, eyes glittering in the darkness.

Reno stared down at her incredulously."You're not going to tell me that you were doing fine are your own, are you?Give me a break.You were running around this place like a chocobo with its head cut off; I was watching you, sister.And if a totally retarded idiot like me could figure out the pattern you were running in, then I'm sure that the man who's after you can, too."

The girl shuddered, the fearful movement of her body making Reno shiver as well.

"Now, either you come with me or I turn you loose in this maze again," Reno said firmly as his heart continued to pound out of control.The demon yanking at his mind told him that the Stalker was close, very close.He didn't know what he would do if the girl refused to come with him…

The girl's eyebrows creased in distress, and she chanced another nervous glance behind her, not able to see the creature she knew was there."Very well," she replied after a brief hesitation."I shall come with you."

Reno resisted the urge to cry out in relief."Glad to hear it," he said coolly, releasing his grip on the girl and ignoring the fact that his body ached to have her close to him, pressed up against him.

His head throbbed with pain as he grabbed the girl's left hand with his right."This way," he muttered, and took off running down the alley, calling up mental pictures from his youth to act as a guide through the labyrinth that he was now in, and not above.To his surprise, the girl managed to keep up with his taxing pace, a considerable feat considering she was much shorter than him and wearing high heels.She matched Reno's loping stride without a problem, her hand in his cold and clammy with fear. 

Making a point to ignore the painful jangling in his mind associated with the Stalker's presence, Reno's eyes darted from side to side as alleys and dark corners whizzed past them, searching for that one familiar pathway that would lead out of this maze.His footsteps echoed loudly in the deserted alley, deep and low in contrast to the girl's ringing staccato strides.Adrenaline pounded through his body, making his breaths come ragged in his chest as he and girl raced along, rats in a maze without an end.

Except there was an end, and Reno knew the way.

Tugging the girl down a side street, his eyes suddenly lit upon a crumbling wall of an old building.The wall was covered in graffiti that was a common sight here, but this wall had a special meaning for Reno.It had been dubbed the "Wall of Fire" or the "Gateway to Heaven" when Reno used to play his deadly games in this labyrinth.The Wall of Fire was where everything began and everything ended.If you couldn't make it back to the Wall during the night for a breather or two, you were in deep shit.The Wall was the safe point, the sacred shrine of the slum's gangs.You didn't defile the Wall; no one touched the Wall unless they earned it.Winners of game made their tags on the Wall in spray paint or blood; losers were left to rot in the Rat's Maze.

"This way," Reno urged breathlessly, pulling on the girl's hand as he ran towards the Wall."I hid my car somewhere down here."

The girl didn't reply; she was too busy breathing.

The Wall grew rapidly closer until Reno could see the marks made on its crumbling surface, some of friends and enemies long gone – Dexter, Briar, Ezra, Sling, Rion, and there was his own name, written in black spray paint that stubbornly clung to the crumbling surface of the Wall – Reno.Beneath it were twelve markings, and as he ran past it, he couldn't help but feel an all-too-familiar flush of pride.

_Twelve times I braved the Rat's Maze,_ he recalled._Twelve times I fought on my own, against my friends and enemies alike, and I emerged victorious.But not the thirteenth time.No, the thirteenth time there was a new rat in the maze.No, not a rat – a cat, a cat after mice.No, not even a cat.He was something more than that…a panther.Yes, a panther on the prowl, and his name was…_

The pain in Reno's head suddenly crescendoed to an unbearable degree, making him grit his teeth in pain.He stumbled to a stop and would have fallen if the girl hadn't suddenly let out a loud gasp, squeezing his hand tightly and bringing him back down to earth.She, too, had frozen where she stood.Red dots danced before Reno's eyes, but he stubbornly clutched his nightstick tighter and whirled to see what had alarmed his mysterious companion.

His heart sank.

The Stalker stood at the mouth of the alley.


	4. Hit Me With Your Best Shot!

**_Clash of the Titans_**

**_Hit Me With Your Best Shot!_**

Reno was frozen where he stood; his boots had suddenly grown roots and adhered themselves into the wasted concrete beneath them.The hand that gripped his nightstick was slick with sweat, and beads of the same substance rolled down his forehead and into his aquamarine eyes.Beside him, the girl who had caused him more trouble in one night than any woman had caused him in his entire life was as motionless as he was, her hand cold and clammy as it gripped his tightly.She was beside herself with fear, but refused to show it.Together, she and Reno glared at the Stalker with their blazing eyes.

On the other side of the alley, the Stalker stood calmly gazing at the odd pair standing against the backdrop of the graffiti covered Wall.Shadows drifted all around him, hiding what little was exposed of his figure.His fedora hat shrouded his eyes in darkness as an unseen breeze sent his trench coat flapping to one side, revealing black cotton clothes that hugged his form.Black, lace-up boots wound their way up his muscular legs, their shiny surfaces glinting in the moonlight.

The Stalker was coldly startled to see that peculiarly familiar red-headed man standing next to the girl, an electric nightstick gripped easily in his left hand while his other hand clutched the girl's.The dark man was at a loss to discern how the flame-haired man had followed him here…

_That blue suit…a Turk.This one is a Turk._

…but he had no intention of dwelling on it.The Stalker's face, or what could be seen of it, was impassive as he gazed at the two pairs of glowing eyes, one aquamarine blue and the other honey gold in color.His gloved hands with their nimble fingers, which had been held in his pockets until now, were hanging limp at his sides, limber and ready for action.All he wanted was the girl; all that mattered was the girl.And if this man, this Turk with hair woven of liquid fire, stood…

_Be careful with the nightstick.This one is crafty and quick, and these slums are his element._

…in his way, then he was going to meet a painful death.Failure was not an option, and this man wasn't going to stop the Stalker from fulfilling his purpose.

Silence hung in the alley, thick as molasses in January, hungrily filling all the cracks and crevasses that made up the space between Reno, the girl and the Stalker.Tension crackled like invisible electric fire, a cord waiting for someone to come along and snap it so it could unleash its viscous tide of violence and bloodshed.Reno gripped his weapon tightly in his left hand as sweat streamed down his face in rivulets.The air soon stank of fear and the hostility sure to accompany the impending battle.It filled Reno's lungs like a thick soup laced with poison, but still, he gathered his courage and called out to the Stalker.

"I take it you're the bastard that's been following her!" he cried, satisfied with how steady his voice sounded despite the thundering pain in his head.He was having trouble focusing his eyes.

The Stalker made no reply to Reno's challenge, and the Turk's determined voice soon faded into the hungry silence.

"Well answer me!" Reno thundered."You can talk, can't you?!"

The Stalker was silent, his trench coat flapping in the breeze.He didn't move.

"He never speaks," the girl suddenly said, her voice pitched low and her golden eyes still riveted on the ominous figure of the Stalker."He only kills and leaves destruction in his wake.You must leave me to fend for myself, or he will kill you, too."

"Don't count on it, sister," Reno growled under his breath without looking at her."I've gone through enough trouble for you already, and I'm not going to let you get away this time.We're gonna get out of here if it kills us both."

_But, shit, I hope it doesn't,_ he added silently.The girl made no reply to his fervent vow.

Reno's expert eyes quickly took in the scene.Anywhere from thirty to forty feet of trash-ridden, dilapidated, hazardous concrete lay between them and Stalker.The secret escape route that Reno knew about was twenty feet behind them, along the Wall, and to the right, just a small hole that an overly husky person would have no hope of fitting through.They could make it to the hole before the Stalker, right?The dark man didn't appear to have any sort of long-range weapon.At least, Reno sure as hell hoped he didn't.

"Listen," he told the girl without moving his lips."I'm going to stall for time here.You run along the Wall and to the right, and you'll see a little hole towards the bottom of it.Crawl through there and keep running straight until you see a black convertible.That's my car.Wait for me there."

The girl turned to stare at his chiseled, determined profile silhouetted against the dark, graffiti-covered walls of the Rat's Maze.Something quickened in her golden eyes, as gone as quickly as it had come.She squeezed Reno's hand."He'll kill you," she said flatly, her voice almost too low for him to hear.

"No he won't," Reno snarled, eyes harsh as he fixed his glare on the motionless figure of the Stalker."Just do as I say.You're going to have to trust me for the time being."

The girl said calmly, "I don't trust you yet, but I will do as you say since no other logical course of action has presented itself."

Anger (and hurt) stung the back of Reno's throat."Well," he said in a low, sarcastic tone."I'm glad that logic has triumphed over gratitude, baby.Now get outta here."

The girl stared at his scarred profile one instant more, feeling as if she should say something else to this exotic stranger that was risking his life for her, but in the end, she tore her gaze away and took off running in the direction he had told her to go, her hair streaming behind her and her heart and mind set on nothing else but escape.

Reno nervously listened to the sharp, ringing sound of the girl's boots pounding the concrete as she ran away.He was a bit unnerved by the fact that the Stalker still had yet to move even though his quarry was very clearly on the verge of escaping.The dark man across the alley was still standing shock still, the only motion being the movement of his flapping trench coat in the putrid slum breezes.Yet despite the fact that Reno could discern nearly nothing of the man's physical appearance (other than his clothes) from such a distance, the Turk received the distinct impression that the Stalker was watching him closely, waiting for something, waiting for Reno to drop his guard.

That was why Reno could have shot himself for what he did next.

Even after he had decided that even at such a distance the Stalker was still dangerous, even after he had told himself that he wouldn't be tricked by this dark man, he made a fatal mistake, one that everyone, street urchin and Turk alike, made and had to learn the hard way.

He looked over his shoulder to see if the girl had found the exit.She had, apparently, but was clearly hesitant on going through.She stood before the almost invisible hole in the brick wall, tucked away in a crevasse and almost completely shrouded in darkness.She appeared to be thinking whether or not she would be able to fit through the hole.

"What are you waiting for?" Reno snapped."Go through!"

The mysterious girl turned towards him, and appeared on the verge of giving some sort of sharp retort when suddenly her golden eyes widened and her mouth dropped open.

"Look out!" she cried in alarm.

Even before he whirled around and caught that telltale flicker of movement in the corner of his eye, Reno knew what he had done wrong and could have kicked himself hard in the ass for making such a stupid mistake.Already he could hear the voice of his old gang leader, Dex, yelling in his ear.

_"What the @#$% did you think you was doin' Sasuki?What does I always tell ya?!Never ever, ever, not once in a @#%$in' year, do you take your eyes off of your enemy! You'd best remember that, Reno, or your ass will be rotting the gutter next time and I won't be there to pull ya out!"_

Reno barely had time to raise his nightstick before the Stalker slammed into him with the brutal force of a battering ram.The sheer strength of the man's assault knocked the wind from his lungs and sent his body flying backwards like shit in a shitstorm.Somewhere in the back of his rational mind, now almost completely unheard through the battle adrenaline, Reno knew that the Stalker had just crossed over fifty feet of empty space in less than five seconds – a feat that was physically impossible…at least for a human.

Then he felt his back slam into the wall, his head making a horrible thumping sound against the bricks, and he no longer cared about the illogical stunt the Stalker had just pulled off.Pain exploded like an atomic bomb planted inside his skull.His teeth clicked together painfully, and he felt his nightstick fly from his grasp.Agony ripped his sight from away from him, and for a single, breathless moment Reno was unconsciousness.He vaguely felt himself slipping down towards the trash-covered pavement, but then the world around him went dark.

But the realm of eternal silence would not tolerate a filthy soul like Reno's within its purified embrace.He was only knocked out for a second before he became aware of cool, cracked concrete beneath his scarred cheek.Through his bleary eyes, he could see one of his hands lying next to his face, naked fingers clenched tight with soulless determination.His lonely nightstick lay just beyond the reach of those pale, murderous digits.

Rage suddenly boiled his blood, the pain all over his bruised body only serving as a tool to fan the flames.His fingers and toes were tingling with battle adrenaline, and that familiar cold settled over his mind, the cold that never froze the rage, only made it worse.His ears suddenly decided to come back from vacation, and he began hearing the sounds of boots thumping hollowly on the pavement, only a few feet from where he was lying like a discarded toy at the base of the Wall.

The Stalker…

Reno's heart hardened.His head buzzed and pulsed with pain and demons.Blood on fire.The steps were closer.Closer…

_KILL!!!_ his mind suddenly screamed.

And Reno was only too happy to oblige.

Without thinking twice or looking where the Stalker was, he suddenly sprung into motion faster than a striking snake.His left hand shot out and grabbed a hold of his nightstick, thumb fumbling for the button to release the electric blast.His body shot up from the ground, fueled by the driving, pulsing need to see blood splattered on the ground, to hear someone scream in pain.His free hand was clenched into a fist, blunt fingernails digging into the palm of his hand.His shoes scrabbled without any real concern for a base on the concrete, and his world was one big blur without sound or meaning.There was one and only one thought, one need: kill.

And as Reno's eyes locked onto the figure of the Stalker – just a dark, slender blur – his head pounded with fever and the battle high.His nightstick was on a collision course with the man's chest without him ever guiding it there.Later on, Reno would recall the battle and would fail to remember if the Stalker had ever had time to react.All he knew was that the moment he felt the business end of the nightstick hit something solid, his demonic thumb eagerly depressed the "trigger" button, and hundreds of volts of hungry electricity were pumped into the Stalker's chest.

The dark alley was suddenly lit up as bright as day, the blue-white electricity spewing out of the nightstick illuminating every nook and cranny, every hungry and ever relentless.It sought to invade and defile every shadowy corner and every hidden recess of the alley.It sang demonic songs in the air between Reno and Stalker, who weren't but three feet away from each other.Reno's mouth was twisted into a snarl, and his back was hunched as if in some sort of erotic pleasure…or intense pain.The hand holding his nightstick was trembling with the sheer exertion of maintaining the magnitude of electricity pouring into the heart of the Stalker.On the other end of the vortex of blue-white light generated by the nightstick, the Stalker stood hunched over in agony.His gloved hands were clenched into fists, and every muscle in his body was taut with pain and concentration.His covered head was lowered so that Reno was deprived of even one elusive glimpse of his face.And the electricity continued to pour into him.

The whole process only took but a second.

The time period from the point where Reno's nightstick started shocking the Stalker with electricity and the instant it knocked the dark man into the opposite wall was actually very short, but it seemed to Reno that he held that murderous nightstick in his hands for several lifetimes before he finally saw the Stalker's body being blown away from him as if in the grips of a powerful wind.The buzzing sound and the battle rage were still clawing at his mind as he watched the dark man fly clear across the alley and strike the crumbling wall about fifteen feet away from where the two titanic assassins had clashed.His thumb still kept the electricity pouring into the dark man until he finally realized that the man was lying in a crumpled heap on the concrete, facedown with his arms spread out into front of him.

The battle high abruptly tapered off as he beheld his now motionless opponent.No more challenge.He breathes no longer.Mission accomplished.That's all folks.

Of course, Reno had no idea whether or not the Stalker was actually dead.His instincts were telling him "no" even though he had pumped enough electricity into the dark man's body to kill a charging elephant (not that Reno had ever been charged by elephant.No way!).Reno had been taught to trust his intuition over anything his logical mind could tell him, and intuition told him to haul his skinny ass out of there before the Stalker could wake up.

And so he did.

All his surroundings were a blur of darkness as he raced away from the Stalker's unconscious body as fast as his legs could carry him.He was at the Wall and through the hole in a matter of seconds without mishap since the hole had apparently been widened by weather and weary souls over the years.Then he was back on his feet again, free of the Rat's Maze, shoes pounding the pavement and his arms pumping at his sides.

_Where's that stupid little skank that got me into this mess?_ Reno thought harshly._She better not have run off again.She'd best be waiting at the car like I told her to._

And she was.

Reno rounded a corner, nearly falling over, and resisted the urge to let out a whoop of relief when he saw his black convertible, a relic from his Turk days, sitting safe and untouched at the mouth of the alley he had parked it in. Its chrome surface glittered in the moonlight with a sly gleam, looking for all the world like a panther waiting to spring at a victim.And beside the car was the girl who had caused Reno more trouble in one night than most of his bitches cost him in a year.She was crouched on the cracked concrete in such a fashion that her skirt nearly bared her legs in their glorious entirety, and her pale skin gleamed enticingly in the darkness.For the second time that night, Reno was hopelessly stricken by the exotic visage of her beauty, and something devious in his form wanted to ravage her on the spot and make her his own.However, once he saw the nervous way she was wringing her hands and smelled the fear vibes she was emitting, any thoughts of lust or carnal desire were immediately ousted from his mind and replaced by one thought and one thought alone: escape.

The girl abruptly rose to her feet as she caught sight of Reno rounding the corner and speeding towards her.Her golden eyes widened in shock."You're alive?!" she gasped incredulously."Where is the—"

"Taking a nap," Reno snapped as he rushed up the car and ran around to the driver's side."Get in."

The girl only stared as he leapt over the side of the car and plopped down into the cushioned seat."But how in all the heavens did you—" she started to say.

Reno glared at her, aquamarine eyes flashing."Look, sister, just do as I say!Get in!"

His tone, usually meant to coerce victims into doing precisely what he wanted them to do, had the opposite effect on the girl.She suddenly began to back away from the car, the look of suspicion in her eyes so obvious that it was almost a tangible thing that seared the air between them.

"You couldn't have dispatched him so easily," she accused, voice pitched low."You must be in league with him."

Reno was on the verge of screaming, and had to grip the steering wheel tight with both hands to avoid exploding in violence."Look, you little—" he started to seethe, but instead let out a gasp as pain lanced through his head like a burning stake, making bloody red spots dance before his vision.

In spite of herself, the girl took a step back towards the car."Are you alright?" she asked, her eyebrows drawn together in a mixture of concern and suspicion.

Reno shook his head violently, not in response to the girl's question, but trying to clear his brain of the demon that had suddenly returned with a new vengeance."Get in," he told the girl without looking at her.Both sets of fingers were pressed against his temples in a vain effort to ease the agony clawing at his brain.

The girl didn't get in, but Reno could see her resolve wavering.

He suddenly turned his head to face her, aquamarine eyes bright with panic."Please, whoever you are, get in before you get us both killed!That man's awake!"

The girl's eyes widened slightly, not surprised to find that the Stalker was awake; she had already known that.What surprised her was how this man, this flame-haired man with the eyes of a trained assassin, knew that her adversary had returned to the world of the conscious.She stared into his aquamarine eyes, soul-searching, looking for an answer to her question, but all she found was panic and a pulsating need to escape.

_This man's being guided,_ she suddenly thought._The Fates have touched him.He's here for a reason…_

Reno's brow creased with distress at the girl's hesitation, and he had to clench his teeth to keep a damper on his anger."Please!" he begged, casting a nervous glance over the girl's shoulder.So far no one had emerged, but he knew it wouldn't last for much longer.The Stalker was still alive, and now he was on his way over here.

The girl looked over her shoulder, black hair flying, and stared at the corner for what seemed like hours but was, in reality, only a split second.Resolve hardened her form, and she made her decision.

Her heels clicked on the pavement as she raced up to the car door and leapt over the side so artfully that Reno didn't see anything that she didn't want him to see under her short dress._Pretty good,_ Reno thought with a mental grin that would have come to his lips if he hadn't been in such a distressed state.Sweat gleamed on his forehead as he started the car, cursing his wildly trembling fingers as they shakily gripped the key.The girl was silent, peering over her shoulder at the corner as the car roared to life.

Reno immediately stomped the gas, and the black convertible responded by leaping out into the street at top speed with its two occupants flung back against the upholstery.Foul-smelling wind whipped through Reno's hair, making his ponytail flap behind him like a battle flag.He plowed into three trashcans in a row, sending miniature explosions of raunchy debris flying into the air as he tore down the road as fast as his trusty car would go.

The pressure in his head suddenly increased.

_Shit!I don't know how much more of this I can take before my whole freaking head explodes!_

"Hey!" he said to girl, who was still facing backwards."Is he there yet?"

"Yes," she said calmly, as if she were speaking of just your average civilian passerby instead of a freakish, trench-coat clad stalking killer.

"What?!" Reno demanded, eyes darting to the rearview mirror in surprise.Sure enough, the Stalker was fully awake and actually _running_ after them, legs pumping at a speed Reno hadn't thought possibly for a human.But then again, it wouldn't have surprised him one bit to find out that the Stalker was some oddball bounty hunter from outer space or something.

"Shit!" he cursed, hand reaching for his nightstick while trying to keep the car steady with one hand.Forcing himself to keep his eyes on the road, he asked to girl, "Do you know if he has some kind of weapon?"

Reno's sideview mirror suddenly exploded into a million glass fragments.

The girl blinked at him, her tone never changing."Does that answer your question?"

Reno found time to give her a withering glare before grabbing her roughly by the shoulder and shoving her head down a second before a stream of bullets went screaming through the air over their heads like flock of miniature demons.Reno ducked his head as well, crowding next to the girl on the upholstery.A barrage of bullets tore through his windshield, making small work of the glass in a second.Cursing loudly, Reno managed to keep one hand on the wheel and cover the girl from falling glass shards at the same time.He was just talented like that.

The girl looked up into his face with wide golden eyes, and Reno had the audacity to grin at her.Their faces were only inches apart."Buckle your seat belt, sister.This is gonna be one wild ride."

This time, the mysterious stranger realized that it wasn't the time to ask stupid questions.She did as she was told, fumbling for the seat belt and snapping it shut over her slender waist.

Satisfied that the girl wasn't going to be flying out of the car at a random moment in time, Reno took hold of his nightstick again, his heart pumping eagerly at the chance for another battle.Now, this was living, baby!

"Hey!" he told the girl, starting to charge his weapon with electricity."Hold the wheel while I take care of this guy!And don't crash into anything!"

She nodded wordlessly and reached over to hold the wheel with both of her small hands, doing her best to keep the way-too-fast car in control, which was not an easy thing, being that she couldn't see the road and Reno still had the accelerator punched all the way to the floor._I can't believe I'm trusting this man!_ she thought._I'm starting to think that he's insane._

As if to further prove her point, Reno suddenly twisted around in his seat and fired a burst of electricity from his nightstick.He was able only to catch a brief glimpse of the Stalker dodging to the left before he had to hunker down to avoid another swarm of bullets.He wasn't happy to find that the man had somehow managed to close most of the distance between the car and himself or the fact that he had some dark weapon clutched in his hands.It was obvious the dark man had some kind of semi-automatic gun.No human could fire in such rapid succession with a regular pistol.The newly discharged bullets tore through what remained of Reno's windshield, and the ex-Turk winced as one shard cut him in the chin.

_God damn that bastard!He fucked up my car!That's it!!I've had it!_

All his anger came boiling up in one second.Gritting his teeth in determination, Reno was just about to fire another blast at his pursuer when he suddenly felt a fiendish idea emerge through the haze in his battle-clouded mind.Sure it would be a risk, but it just might work!And since when was Reno of the Turks afraid to gamble with his life?Or anyone else's, for that matter.

Moving quicker than he ever had in his entire life, Reno pulled a crowbar from where he had it stashed under the seat and quickly jammed it against the accelerator pedal, removing his foot as he did so.The girl looked at him in confusion, still fighting to keep the car going in a straight line.It was a miracle they hadn't crashed into a wall yet.Or hit somebody.

"Keep driving," Reno ordered firmly, but he sent a silent prayer to gods he didn't believe in that the girl wasn't going to decide to get feisty now.

If she was going to formulate a response to his less-than-cordial order, she never got a chance to do so before Reno pressed the end of his still-charged nightstick to her dark head.The weapon was making a dull whirring noise as the compressed electricity churned within, and Reno was sure that the high-pitched noise was hurting her ear, but amazingly enough, she never once removed her eyes from the road.She appeared to be totally unconcerned with the fact that she had an electric nightstick pressed up against her head with Reno's itchy trigger finger hovering over the firing button.

_She trusts me.Damn.Poor thing._

"Hey!" he suddenly screamed, fighting to make his voice heard over the sound of firing bullets and the roar of the engine. "Hold your fire or I'm gonna blow her head off!I don't think you want that now, do you?!Well?!"

There was a split second of tension in the night air.Then the swarm of bullets died into nothing.

_It's working!_ Reno thought incredulously._This is definitely awesome.Damn, I'm good._

Reno chanced a quick look above the seat to see that the Stalker was a little ways away from their car and closing fast.The good thing, however, was that the dark man seemed to have discarded his weapon, being that Reno hadn't been able to glimpse it in the man's hands.Of course, the man could have just hidden it in his trench coat, but Reno was beyond caring about all that now.

Removing his fully charged nightstick from the girl's head, he spun completely around in his seat and sent a ball of electricity flying towards the Stalker.His aim was impeccable, as always, but the dark man still managed to dodge the projectile, moving with a speed that rivaled the one that he had used in the alley.Reno screamed in frustration and fired again, this time holding the firing button longer to make the blast more intense.The Stalker dodged again, his coat flaring behind him like a demon's wings.

Fire!

Dodged.

Fire!

Dodged.

_Dammit!This sucks!There's gotta be another way, or the next time he dodges, he's going to jump onto the back of the car!He's close enough.Isn't there any way?_

A shadow passed overhead, startling Reno so bad that he almost removed his eyes from the dark man in pursuit of the car.His eyes flicked upward with Mako-enhanced speed, and in an instant, he made his decision.As the black convertible roared aimlessly down the road like a ghost in the dark, Reno abruptly switched targets and fired an electric blast at the very thing that had given him such a scare.

The apartment fire escape screamed in protest as the ball of pure electricity struck its rusted surface, melting some of the ancient metal upon contact.The whole thing shook and trembled under the abuse, and the night was suddenly filled with the sounds of groaning, twisting metal.

As Reno watched with his finger still on the firing button and his hair flying into his face, the entire fire escape suddenly collapsed, falling away from the building and plummeting towards the road…and the Stalker.The dark man sensed the danger he was suddenly in and reacted, backpedaling so furiously that he started to slide across the concrete.

Then the twisted, melting heap of metal that used to be the fire escape crashed onto the street with bang, and the Stalker disappeared from Reno's view.For a moment, the metal squealed and screamed like a stuck pig in its death throes, then finally settled to its new resting place with a resigned sigh, its cries dissipating into the night air.

_Did I get him?_ Reno wondered as the convertible continued to roar away from the scene of carnage.

Movement in the corner of his eye suddenly caught his attention, and Reno turned to see that the mysterious girl was starting to raise her head so that she could see over the dashboard.

"What the hell are you doing?" Reno snapped, still watching the mess he had left behind to make sure that the Stalker didn't reemerge like some sort of zombie from the wreckage."Stay down!"

"There's a highway up ahead," the girl said calmly, ignoring Reno's orders and raising her head above the back of the seat; consequently, putting herself out in the open.

"And how do you know that?" Reno growled angrily.Something was moving in the wreckage behind him.Could be just metal, but he wasn't too sure.

"I read the sign," the girl replied to his earlier question, scooting as close to wheel as her safety belt would allow."And that man – you needn't be concerned with him anymore, at least for tonight.He will not give pursuit again until he has recovered his strength."

But Reno wasn't even listening.His Mako blue eyes were riveted on the figure he saw emerging from the wreckage, disbelief flowing through his mind.It was the Stalker, alive and intact.Impossible.There was no way…

"No way!" Reno cried, beside himself with fury as he pounded the back of the seat with his nightstick and shoved his ponytail away angrily as it flew into his eyes."No @#$%ing way!I killed that son of a bitch!"

If the Stalker had been within firing range, Reno would have charged up his nightstick and let the bastard have it, but the car was already too far away to get off a clear shot.All he could do was watch as the distant figure of the Stalker crawled gracefully out of the wreckage, tumbling to the pavement and lurching easily to his feet, totally unconcerned with the tattered remains of his garments.Reno saw the man take a few steps in their direction – steps without anything resembling a limp – as if he were thinking of following them, but instead he stopped and slipped his hands casually into his pockets.

_Who the hell is this guy?!_ Reno wondered._No human could have survived that!Who is he?_

But, of course, the Fates chose not to answer his soundless question, as was their custom.Toying with and using human lives was their specialty.Answering the questions of their subjects, their paper dolls, however, was not important enough to merit their attention.Reno's frustration increased tenfold as he felt an ache inside him – the agony of not knowing something that he wanted to know, something he _needed_ to know.

Then the Stalker suddenly raised his face into the moonlight, and the shadows underneath his hat was suddenly lit up as bright as day, his face exposed for single, brief moment, bathed in moonlight.Icy fingers slid down Reno's spine as his breath caught in his throat.Abruptly, he spun around and sank into the driver's seat, turning his back on the Stalker, but unable to get rid of that cold feeling that had washed over his soul the minute the dark man had raised his face to the moonlight.

_I was seeing things.Yeah, a mixture of the distance and battle high, and it's nighttime for crying out freaking loud!It couldn't have been.There's no way.Dead men don't walk._

But they did, because for a second there, Reno had thought the Stalker was wearing the face of a man who had been dead for months.

* * * * * * *

_Author's Note:Yes, I'm still writing "Sink to the Bottom With You" but I decided to give this fic some of my attention, at least for a while.^_^I had been stuck on this chapter for a long time, and I'm just really glad that it's finally finished!Please review and send me your comments!_

_ _

e-mail [catalina2717@go.com][1]

   [1]: mailto:catalina2717@go.com



	5. Nanashi

Nanashi

**_Nanashi_**

**_ _**

_Haven't we met?_

_You're some kind of beautiful stranger_

_You could be good for me_

_I've got the taste for the danger_

_If I'm smart then I'll run away_

_But I'm not so I guess I'll stay_

_Haven't you heard?_

_I fell in love with a beautiful stranger_

_ _

_"Beautiful Stranger"_

_Madonna****_

**_ _**

Reno watched the nameless girl out of the corner of his eye as he drove the car at breakneck speed down the street of Sector Five, steering expertly around fallen heaps of rubble with the ease of long practice, trying to ignore the stretchy feeling that the wind roaring in his face left on his skin.He still had no windshield; his car hadn't grown another one since the shoot-out with the Stalker half an hour ago.Piece of shit car.And now it had dozens of not-so-attractive bullet holes all over its formerly spotless chrome body.

_I'm gonna have to ask Rude to drive me to work until I can get this hunk of junk a makeover,_ Reno thought grumpily._Just great.My car's a big piece of crap now, and I still have this weird-ass, mute chick with me.She still hasn't said a word to me, and I just risked everything to save her ass.Now isn't that gratitude for you, boys and girls?_

But it was more than sour feelings that kept Reno from leaving the girl unobserved for more than a few seconds.He was actually afraid that she was going to suddenly jump out of the car or do some other crazy thing; that's why he was driving so fast.In the short time he had "known" her, Reno had already come to the conclusion that his silent companion was no ordinary female, and the fact that she had seemed eager to shake him off before was only making him more paranoid that she would ditch him if given half a chance.And Reno wasn't about to lose her now that he had gone through so much trouble just to keep her safe.

So far, however, she had shown no signs of wanting to escape.She just sat there on the other side of the front seat with her seat belt buckled around her waist and her hands folded neatly in her lap.She seemed completely oblivious to the wind tearing at her inky hair, and though she was squinting instinctively to keep the wind from ravaging her tender eyes, she appeared to be relatively at peace.The streetlamps, as Reno sped past them, cast their harsh light on her unnaturally pale skin, flickering yellow and ghostly blue-white dancing across her exposed flesh like invading imps in heaven.And not for the first time, Reno was inundated with the thought that she wasn't an ordinary human being, if she was even human, that is.

"Who are you?" he suddenly demanded, speaking loudly enough to be heard over the wind.

The girl turned her golden gaze to him, eyes staring at him with seemingly unshakable calm."My identity is of no concern to you," she said calmly.

Reno snorted, dissatisfied with her answer."Better watch it," he threatened half-heartedly."Or I just might make it my concern."

"May I ask where we're going?" the girl inquired of him, abruptly shifting subjects.She appeared to be undaunted by his threat.

"No, you may not," Reno answered matter-of-factly, steering around a corner so sharply that he nearly capsized the car.

"Then I _demand_ to know where you are taking me," she said coldly, eyes drilling holes into the side of his face.

That made Reno grin for some reason."You're a real feisty one, aren't you?" he asked of her."Tread carefully, honey.Men like feisty women, but there's a fine line between feisty and bitchy, and you're straddling that line, baby girl."

"Don't call me that," she suddenly hissed, that strange natural glow in her eyes suddenly intensifying as she narrowed her eyes into slits.

_Whoa…that got a reaction out of her.Memo to self: call her "baby girl" when I want to piss her off._

Reno still had the audacity to send a smile in her direction as he steered his battered convertible into the parking lot of his apartment complex."We're here, sister," he told her with mocking cheerfulness as he killed the engine.He noticed in passing that he was taking up two parking spaces, but he didn't really give a damn.

The girl didn't say anything, but she folded her arms across her chest in a clear expression of defiance and turned her cold gaze forward, refusing to look at Reno.For his part, Reno exited the car as quickly as possible, still fearful that she would make a run for it when he was walking around the vehicle to her side.However, she didn't even budge from her spot or bat an eyelash as he strode around the front of the convertible in long strides, glaring at her mute figure the entire way.

"Come on, sister," Reno ordered, opening her car door."Get your ass outta the car."

"Only if I may walk away freely after I do," she said coldly, staring at the dashboard as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.The streetlight in front of Reno's apartment building flickered on and off, sending flashes of synthetic light dancing across her red-black hair and her unnaturally pale skin.

"You ain't going nowhere," Reno said firmly, gripping the metal of the car door in a white-knuckled grip."You're going to stay at my place with me."

The girl shifted her gaze to glare up at him, golden eyes flashing like yellow fire in the dark night."If you're expecting some sort of reward for your rescuing me, then I would advise you think again.I have nothing at all to give you."

Reno grinned as he heard the hidden meaning in her words."You still think I wanna bang you, huh?" he asked, using the most stinging terminology he could think of.

The girl just glared daggers at him.

Reno leaned casually against the car door, ignoring the way its creaks protested his added weight."Honey," he said."I know you ain't no whore.I never thought you were in the first place, you know."

"And you seriously expect me to believe that?" she asked coldly, lifting a dark brow.

Reno snorted."Those clothes aren't yours, are they?" he asked, eyes roving over the fishnet hose, the slinky dress, and the heeled boots.

The girl was silent for a moment, then she said quietly, "No."

"You stole them," Reno stated.

"_Borrowed_ them," the girl corrected icily."There is a difference between stealing and borrowing.I intend to return these as soon possible."

Reno rolled his aquamarine eyes towards the night sky, briefly allowing his sardonic gaze to flick across the starry sky before reverting his attention back to the girl still seated in his passenger seat.

"I'm sure you do," he said sarcastically, eyes glittering down at her with wicked humor."Now, get outta the car before I have to force you outta it."

The girl turned her face away from him, her gaze falling to rest once more on the now-tattered dashboard.She didn't budge.

Reno felt anger slowly rising in his heart._Shit, this is gonna be harder than I thought.She's so hell-bent on showing who's in charge here…well, I'll show her that I'm the boss around here, not her!_

He suddenly lunged forward with the intention of grabbing her by the arm and hauling her out of the car.Though he had left the Turks and Shinra behind to burn in the fires of blackest hell, Reno knew that he got into enough fights to keep his reflexes sharp.Before this mysterious girl, he was under the impression that no civilian could evade an attack from him.

That's why he was stunned out of his mind when he suddenly felt the girl's hand strike his attacking one with a stinging slap that startled Reno so badly that he withdrew his hand back to his side, a red welt forming on the pale skin.For a moment, all he did was stare at her, completely dumbfounded that she had actually _hit_ him when he hadn't even seen her hand move.And now she was glaring at him as if _he_ had done something to violate _her_!

A deep scowl formed on his face as he fought to keep a damper on his temper, knowing that he should have learned that brute force wasn't going to work on this girl.Reno didn't know who or what she was, but she had quicker reflexes than he did, apparently.

_Ok.Plan B: try being…nice.Gag me, but here goes._

Reno smiled sweetly, the expression of decorousness not quite reaching his eyes.He stepped back from the side of the car and held the door wide open, bowing and making a sweeping motion with his arm as he did so.

"Please," he said as politely as he could."Your Most Royal Highness, it would give me great pleasure if you would step out of the car, please."

"Ok."

"What?!" Reno practically screeched, dropping his chauffeur act as easily as he dropped the women he dated.Anger smoldered in his aquamarine eyes as he watched the girl calmly unbuckle herself and step gracefully out of the wartorn convertible, sliding the car door from his limp fingers and shutting it quietly behind her.She straightened her dress and clasped her hands together in front of her, staring up at him with something that might have been humor flickering in her eyes.

For a moment, all Reno did was stare at her dumbly, his gaze darted from her calm face to the empty seat she had just abandoned readily, as if that had been her intentions all along.

_Playing with me.She was playing with me!_

"You bitch," Reno cursed, eyes flashing angrily as he glared down at her."You just wanted to make me say 'please', didn't you?"

"You seem like the kind of person who needs to learn some manners," she responded flatly.

Reno's eyes widened."W-W-What???!!!" he sputtered, resisting the urge to stamp his foot into the pavement so hard that he would make a hole to the center of the Planet.

"I'm sure you don't believe that you're the most decorous person in this world," the girl continued."At least I hope you don't think that, because if you do then I'm afraid you might be delusional."

"Shut the hell up!" Reno snapped, his blood boiling with anger.No one had ever told him that he was an asshole in such an elegant fashion before."You have absolutely no right whatsoever to tell me all that shit!You don't know me!"

"Precisely," the girl said flatly."That's why I should leave right now…"

Reno immediately snapped to attention."Oh no you don't," he seethed, anger still running its course through his system.He stepped to the side and pointed firmly to the building behind him, his eyes drilling holes into his rebellious companion."Up those stairs," he ordered."Now."

The girl didn't move.

_Oh God…not again…_

"_Please_," Reno said, giving her a smile that more like a grimace.

By the time the dynamic duo had reached Reno's apartment door, Reno was ready to blow his top and start raising Cain in a blind rage.He'd never met any woman as difficult to deal with as this one!He had saved her goddamn life, and she STILL didn't trust him for crap!He had spent more time arguing with her about who was going to walk up the stairs first than he spent actually walking up the damn things.The girl had insisted that she didn't want to go first because Reno would look up her skirt.Well, she hadn't actually _said_ that, but Reno had inferred it from the deathglares she kept sending him whenever he had ordered her to go up the stairs in front of him.Five minutes of arguing had only resulted in Reno raising his voice to a level loud enough to break the sound barrier, the girl glaring at him calmly and the landlady storming out and yelling at Reno for making so much racket.He had flipped the old lady off and walked up the steps side by side with the girl.He now had several bruises on his hip to show for all his troubles.The stairwells in his shitty apartment complex were as narrow as hell.

"I hope you appreciate all the trouble I'm going through for you," Reno snapped as he inserted his key in the lock and twisted it so hard that he nearly snapped it in half.

The girl didn't say anything.She only stood there staring as Reno cursed and jangled the doorknob when the door refused to open.

_Damn…I hate my life._

"Is this your house?" she suddenly asked, examining the cracked wooden door and the soiled wallpaper that surrounded it on all sides.

"This is my _apartment_," Reno grunted, a bit surprised she had asked."I ain't got enough money to buy a goddamn house.There!"

With a triumphant grin, Reno heard the lock click.He yanked the key from the keyhole and shoved the door open, bracing it with his arm and gesturing firmly for the girl to enter before him.

_Okay, if she argues with me this time, I swear I'm gonna…_

But to his surprise, the girl walked right in, and for the first time, Reno noticed that she had a light, slightly tropical scent to her that tickled his sense of smell as she passed by.He'd never smelled that kind of perfume before, and the women he dated usually bathed in all kinds of scented oils and soaps.You name it, they wore it, anything to cover their true scents and their true selves.

Reno stepped into the dark apartment and flipped the light switch next to the door, illuminating his pig's pen living room for all to see.The girl looked around curiously, her eyes roving over every dirty corner and surface, seemingly undaunted by the mess lying everywhere.Reno was suddenly embarrassed that she had to see his place looking like a hurricane had blown through it.He hadn't even thought about the mess he left in his apartment until now. He usually didn't give a damn what he dropped on the floor or the couch.Rude and Elena were the only ones that saw his apartment, and he didn't care what they thought.They both knew that Reno was too lazy to clean up after himself, and they – or Rude at least – didn't bother him about it.And as for Reno's "lady friends," not a single one of them had ever seen his apartment.They always "entertained themselves" at a hotel or some other place, never his.

"Do all apartments have all these objects lying on the floor?" the girl suddenly asked, touching a discarded dress shirt with the tip of her boot.

"Don't step on that," Reno snapped before he could stop himself."I wear those to work."

The girl suddenly whirled around, her hair whipping behind her.A strange emotion hardened her eyes.She backed up a step from where Reno was standing."Work?" she echoed, her voice suddenly gone cold and flat."And just what is your occupation?"

Though the sudden change in her personality had freaked him out a bit, Reno pushed himself away from the door and dropped his keys on a crappy little wooden table where he always put all the junk he didn't want to carry."I don't see why it concerns you," he said flatly, enjoying the fact that he was able to fling her own words back at her.

He instantly regretted his little game, however, because it only seemed to anger the girl.Every muscle in her body went rigid, and both of her hands curled into fists of rage.Her eyes seemed to gleam, catching the light and throwing it back at him, full of violence and the smell of battle. The thought then occurred to Reno that the girl actually might know how to fight.Her stance certainly suggested that she did…

"I'm a bodyguard," he said, watching her reaction to his words."I _protect_ people, sister."

She lifted an eyebrow at him, but something seemed to relax in her demeanor."And this is why you saved me tonight?" she asked.

Reno snorted and removed his jacket."Honey, I don't know why I saved your sorry ass tonight.You've been nothing but thorn in my side."He started to drop his jacket on the floor, but suddenly hung it up on the back of the table's equally crappy wooden chair instead.

Sighing and rubbing the back of his neck, Reno suddenly felt the toils of his little adventures that night catch up with him.He hadn't had to fight a battle like that in months, and the effects of his inactivity were just starting to kick in.His legs ached as he kicked his shoes into a corner of the room, trying to ignore the mysterious girl staring at him.

_Let her stare all she wants.I don't care if she thinks I'm a weirdo or something.Great, I have a hole in my sock.Just perfect._

Refusing to look at the girl, Reno turned into his kitchen and saw that it was just as messy as his living room.Funny, how he had never noticed such a thing before until he knew that someone else would be seeing it.Dirty dishes with some food still left on them were piled up in the sink, and there were odd items like magazines, razors and even an old toothbrush from who knows where lying on the counters.Reno scratched the back of his head just above his ponytail, trying to remember just when all this crap had gotten there.

_Why the hell am I worrying?Who gives a damn?_

Wincing at how cold the floor was beneath his thin socks, he crossed the filthy kitchen and flung open the refrigerator door, only to be brutally disappointed that no new food had materializes since he left for work in the morning.But, of course, he still had his endless supply of beer to keep him company.He had just pulled one out of the side rack when he heard the click of a heeled boot on the kitchen floor – a cautious click, one that was not meant to be heard.Reno smiled without even turning.He had been wondering if he girl was going to follow him around instead of wandering off on her own.If she followed him into the kitchen, it meant that she trusted him in the slightest bit, if she wanted to be with him.He was strangely pleased to see that he had been partially right, even thought it had taken her longer to react to the absence of his presence that he would have liked.

"Wanna beer, sister?" Reno asked, as he popped the cap off of the brown bottle and took a deep gulp, enjoying the bitterness of the liquid as it coursed down the length of his throat.

"No thank you," the girl said clearly.

Reno shrugged and turned to plop down at the kitchen table, nearly breaking the old chair as he did so."Your loss," he told the girl, watching with carefully disguised interest as she examined everything in the kitchen with the same thoroughness that she had the living room.Her observations were all visual, though; she didn't run over and pick things up like some annoying people Reno knew.All she did was stand in the center of his kitchen like a goddess from another time, her golden eyes roaming ceaselessly over everything they could reach, drinking in their environment.And for the first time, he noticed that his new "friend" seemed to be quite a curious creature, an aspect of her personality that he hadn't taken note of before.

_You'd think she'd never seen a kitchen before,_ Reno thought as he took another swig from his beer.

He waited until she seemed done with her examination to say, "Sit down, honey."He gestured to the chair across the table from him.Then as an afterthought, he added, with a disgusted snort, "Please." 

The girl stared at him for a second, golden eyes absorbing his figure as if the image of a red-haired man slumped at a wooden kitchen table chugging a beer went perfectly with the backdrop she had been looking at with such curiosity seconds before.Then, without a word of rebellion, she strode over to the table and seated herself stiffly in the chair Reno had indicated earlier, the wood creaking in protest even though she was a small slip of a creature.

Reno studied her in silence for a while, enjoying the way the lights illuminated her black-red hair and made her skin look even paler than it did in the darkness of the night.The same light reflected and danced in her golden eyes, and Reno noticed that she had a ring of black around each golden iris, making them rather unnerving to look at.He hadn't noticed the dark rings in the night, but now that she was under proper lighting, their sheer inhumanness seemed to leap out and scratch him on the face.

And not for the first time, Reno had the thought that this was no human sitting across from him.

"So," he said, trying to ignore the shudders that were coursing down his spine."What's your name, honey?"

The girl stared at him blankly, but Reno got the distinct impression that she wanted him to mind his own business.

He sighed melodramatically and said, "And don't tell me, 'It doesn't concern you' or anything stupid like that.I saved your life; I think the least you can do is tell me what your name is."

"With all due respect," she said, and Reno thought he heard a strange sad note in her voice."I didn't request that you save me."

In an amazing feat of self-discipline, Reno held his tongue and took a cool swig of his beer instead, his aquamarine eyes glaring at her the whole time.She had to be the most impossible person he had ever met…

"Look," he said coolly, brushing away a strand of blood-red hair as it flopped into his eye."If you don't give me your name, I'll have to give you one myself, honey."He smiled mischievously.

"And what name would you give me?"

Reno took a thoughtful gulp of his beer and stared at her for a while, thinking of all the kinky, stupid names that his devious little mind could come up with, but in the end, he settled for a simple one that he hadn't heard in a while.

"Nanashi."

The girl blinked."What?"

"Nanashi," Reno repeated, still studying her with an out-of-place thoughtful look on his face."It's Wutainese.It means 'No-name.'Not very flattering either, sweetheart."

"Are you Wutainese?" the girl asked, the curiosity returning to her face.

Reno shrugged his shoulders in dismissal."My last name is Sasuki, if that means jack shit to you.It's Wutainese."

"And what is your first name?"

A grin spread across Reno's scarred face as his eyes glittered with amusement."Ah, ah, ah," he chided, wagging a finger in the girl's direction."Until you tell me your name, I'm Sasuki and you're Nanashi.So 'fess up, sister, or you're going to be 'No-name' the rest of your life." 

The girl surprised him by falling silent, sinking down slightly in the chair as if falling into the depths of memory.Her golden eyes became misted, the preternatural luster less prominent, but still captivating in its own right.Reno had expected the girl to snap at him, but his words appeared to have made her thoughtful, if not a little sad.

Suddenly, those golden eyes locked onto his with gentle intensity."I don't have a name," she said in a rather quiet tone.

Reno blinked at her in surprise, though he had been expecting as much."Then you truly are Nanashi," he said, drumming his fingers against the wooden tabletop, his gaze thoughtful.

"I do not wish to be called Nanashi," she said firmly, though the fire was absent from her voice.

Reno shrugged and watched the condensation drip down the side of his beer bottle until it pooled on the tabletop in lonely little puddles."So give yourself a name, then," he said simply.

"But I was under the belief that names were given to you by others."

This Reno dismissed with a snort before taking another chug of beer."Learn to take charge of your own life," he told her, liking how he was sounding all philosophical."If you want to be sentimental and crap like that, then name yourself after some that is special to you."

The girl was silent, but her eyebrows knitted as a flash of pain crossed her face, as fleeting as a ghost in the mists of memory and gone just as quickly, leaving a contemplative, pensive look on her face.

Someone that's special to me, she thought to herself.Her surroundings seemed to vanish, those words running through her mind quite freely until they finally rammed into and tore down the wall the girl had placed between herself and her recent memories – memories she wanted to forget.Cold, dank cell with hard cement floors and moss-covered walls.Sound of dripping water in the darkness.Smell of death and madness drifting to her cell, like acid in the air.No, the girl didn't care to recall those things, those horrid things…

"Sister," the red-haired man across the table from her called, his voice interrupting the flow of memory."You gotta name yet?"

"Hold on," she whispered, eyes riveted on the table without seeing it."I'm thinking."

Back to the memories, back to the dark place she had been birthed into.A face floated in front of her.Wild, untamed black hair that lay against pale skin and coyly obscured Mako blue eyes that had long ago lost the sparkle that the girl had loved to see in those luminescent orbs.

Name?Zack.No, she could not use that name.It was not a name suitable for a female, and though she was sure Zack wouldn't mind if she took on his name, it just didn't suit her well.Zack was Zack, and that was that.There would never be another like him.For a moment, the girl's heart ached terribly when she thought of him still locked in that cell, forehead resting dismally against the bars as he dreamed of freedom and violently cursed Fate for all it had done to him.She remembered his young male voice, full of life and passion, ringing through the silence in their cell, until a softer, accented feminine voice rose up with its own power to console him.

Another face swam into the girl's vision.Chocolate brown skin that sharply contrasted with the whiteness of her smile and the vivid liquid green of her eyes.It was these eyes that soothed the girl when she was pained by her loss of purpose, pained by the bars keeping her imprisoned.And though this woman must have felt that same pain, she lent the girl her endless amount of inner strength, infusing her with courage, the courage she needed to escape.It was this woman that first called her "baby girl."

"Serena," the girl whispered under her breath, and though she was sure that the man across from her had heard a phantom of the name, he was wise enough not to question her.

_Serena?Do I dare take on the name of such a majestic woman?_ the girl wondered._Well, I won't take on the whole name, no.But I will take on a part of it.Then end of her name…yes…_

"Rena," the girl said clearly, her eyes snapped back into focus as she raised her gaze to the man across the table from her.

Reno lifted an eyebrow, amusement filling his eyes and curving one corner of his mouth into a smile."Rena?" he repeated, trying to keep the laughter out of his voice.

_Of all the names in the freakin' world…_

The girl now known as Rena narrowed her eyes at him, obviously thinking that he was mocking her choice of names."Rena is a good name," she insisted."I did just as you instructed and chose the name of a person that means a lot to me."

Reno laughed and held up his hands in mock surrender."Don't worry!" he declared with a grin."Rena is good name.A very good name."

Rena leaned forward."And what is your name, Mr. Sasuki?"

"Reno."

She blinked in surprise."Come again, please?"

"My name is Reno," Reno said slowly, unable to stop the grin that was spreading across his face.The situation was so entirely ridiculous that he felt a bout of hysteria coming on.

"Oh," Rena said, looking innocently puzzled, as if she couldn't believe that his name was so similar to the one she had chosen."Reno and Rena," she suddenly said in a sing-song tone, as if announcing the winners to some grand prize.

"Oh yeah, sister, what a mismatched pair we're going to make.Reno and Rena."

Aquamarine eyes met golden ones, and suddenly the tension that had been shoving the two strangers apart gave way a little bit, and they both stared laughing, the pure sounds of mirth, true rarities in both characters, filling the kitchen like a welcome breath of spring after a long winter.

* * * * * * * * *

_Author's Note: ::yawn::This chapter was more plot than action, but I didn't want to make it sure long by adding a bunch of other stuff to it.That will come in future chapters!^^By the way, "Nanashi" is actually Japanese for "No-name."Oh, and you'll have to excuse any spelling or grammar errors!It's very late at night and I'm… ::falls asleep on keyboard::_


	6. The Caged Birds

The Caged Birds

**_The Caged Birds_**

**_ _**

_"Have some sympathy fuh me.Put me down easy, Janie, Ah'm a cracked plate."_

_-- Old Nanny_

_from Their Eyes Were Watching God_

_by Zora Neale Hurston_

_"We're lost in here."_

_ _

_"I know."_

It was always nighttime in the corridor.It was a place as sleepless as the diseased city of Midgar, for none of the inhabitants of the cells ever slept – they weren't deemed worthy of sleep.And even if they were, they wouldn't have gone to rest for any temporary period.No, if someone went to sleep in one of the cells, it was the eternally blissful release of death that they dove headfirst into.The torture, pain-wracked, diseased souls would allow their owners no other type of release.

_"All we are is a bunch of cracked plates.Our pieces can never be put back together again."_

_ _

_"Yeah, I know."_

The stench of bitterness hung so thickly in the air that it could have been cut with a knife.It burned the lungs of the other inhabitants and poisoned their systems, sometimes infecting them with the disease that plagued their cellmates, but only sometimes.Sometimes they choked to death on the rancid emotions that their companions emanated.And so would end the short life of another nameless prisoner.

_"We've gotta get outta here, you know."_

_ _

_"You like to try, hon?"_

_ _

_"Baby Girl got out…"_

_ _

_"She needed to get out."_

But not all the prisoners in the corridor of cells were nameless.In fact, most of the trapped ones had been born with names, titles bestowed upon them by parents that were sometimes loving and sometimes indifferent.But names didn't matter in this place – all that mattered was one's usefulness with the time for choosing came.If you weren't any good, you were "scrapped."

_"We need to get out of here, too…or I'm gonna go insane."_

And no one wanted to be scrapped, so they focused all their attentions on making themselves appear to be the best, the strongest, the most healthy, the most spirited, anything to avoid a certain doom.And in doing so…names were forgotten.

_"Baby Girl will come back for us."_

But there were some who refused to forget their names, refused to forget their hearts and their spirits.Such creatures were considered dangerous, and so they were kept separated where the other caged birds were not subjected to their aroma of prospective liberation.They were kept in the darkest, farthest, most treacherous part of the corridor.

_"I…hope so.No!I don't hope, I know she will return, won't she…Serena?"_

The key to their cell was only given to a select few because they were beguiling and tricky.There were three in the beginning.One was smooth-talking and dangerously strong, another knowledgeable and unbelievably shrewd, and the third was just the silent one, the mystery of the corridor.

_"It's okay to wish for her return, Blue Eyes, but don't call her here with yer heart now, honey.She needs her freedom."_

Yes, there had been three in the beginning, but now there were only two.The silent one had flown long ago.

* * * * * * * * * 

"We all need freedom," the blue-eyed man said as he peered through the bars of their cell, his gloved hands gripping the slimy metal columns numbly as if one day he would suddenly acquire the strength to rip down the bars and take off to the sky once again.But such strength was only a fleeting memory to him – memories of time when he had been in SOLDIER, a man of some importance, he believed.But he didn't like to remember those times because attached with those memories was a man, an evil man.This man had flowing gray hair and eyes of cold blue-green fire and a heart of ice.This man was named Sephiroth, and he was the Great Destroyer.But he was dead now, thank the heartless gods that had dished out such a cruel fate for the blue-eyed man and his cellmate.

"Don't you start slippin' on me now, Blue Eyes," she warned, staring at the strong outline of her companion's back from her seat against the far wall."You stay right here with me now, you hear?"

The man blinked his Mako blue eyes slowly, lowering his dark head so that some of the wild spikes fell against his face."Yeah, Serena," he said quietly, his voice sounding naked and lonely."I understand."

"Somethin' tells me that you don't, Zack," the woman named Serena replied shrewdly.She had long ago acquired the ability to judge her cellmate's moods with lazy ease.Most of it was due to her affection for the dark-haired man, but she had always been adept at such things, even with perfect strangers.It was in her blood.

"You're right," Zack replied, shaking his spiky head and pressing his forehead dismally against the rusted surface of the door."I don't understand at all, and I just don't care anymore.I just wanna get outta here.It's been so long…"

Sympathy burned in Serena's pale green eyes as she drew her knees up to her chest and rested her chin on them, trying to ignore the fact that her jeans were in tatters due to the rough life she had been forced to live for – lord, how long had it been since she and her family were captured and forced underground by men whose faces she was no longer allowed to remember?It seemed like ages ago, but she knew that in all reality, she had been down here for only two years, tops.Most humans had no perception of how time passed underground, but Serena did.Her heart, not her eyes or her mind, told her when the sun had risen over the kingdom of the earth and when the moon reigned supreme over the living night.She alone amongst the prisoners experienced the passage of time, and she was starting to think that she was the only one who even cared any longer.

"Zack," she called to her cellmate, voice teeming with gentle authority that Zack, despite his rebellious spirit, always seemed to pay heed to more than the sometimes harsh, sometimes cold, voices of the guards who oversaw them.

Her companion turned so that his profile was silhouetted against the light seeping in from the dimly lit hallway."Hm?" he mumbled, not even moving his lips.A strand of unruly black hair flopped against his face, and he lifted a gloved hand to absently brush it away.

"Come sit over here with ol' Serena," the woman urged congenially, smiling a little.

Zack hesitated, and for a moment, she thought he was going to remain staring dismally out into the untouchable hallway.But then he heaved a sigh and began to trudge over to where she was seated against the wall.

"You're not old, Serena," he told her half-heartedly, all the laughter having been leeched out of his voice a long time ago.It was such a pity, too, since Zack had always been one who was ready to laugh for just about any reason.Now, he didn't even smile…

"How do you know I ain't old?" Serena teased him gently as he settled his warm body next to hers against the wall, his pale, muscled shoulder brushing hers gently."I could be an old grandma, and you'd never know, honey."

A bit of weary humor flashed in Zack's luminescent blue eyes as he stared at her."Babe, you sure as hell don't look like no grandma I ever seen.How old do you think you are anyways?"

Serena smiled, white teeth flashing in the darkness."Honey, I _know_ I'm twenty-two years old as of February 21."

Zack leaned his head back against the stone wall, a frown tugging at the corners of his mouth as the look in his eyes became misted and pensive."I wonder how old I am?" he said softly, voice just loud enough to disperse itself into the darkness of the cell.

The dark-skinned woman patted him on the knee, feeling the worn, purple material beneath her fingers like the will of a warrior stretched thin by pain and strife."You young and handsome, Zack," she told him softly, studying his profile with its pale skin and striking blue eyes.

"I think I was sixteen when I was brought down here," he continued, staring at the barred window on the door, as if beyond that, there lie the answer to every question he had."And if I've been down here longer than you have, and you've been down here two years at least, then that must make me older than eighteen…"He suddenly turned to her and declared, "Hey!I'm a legal adult!"

She laughed softly, reminded of just why her affection for this man was so immense.Perhaps too immense.She was starting to think that maybe she was falling in love with him.

Zack suddenly leapt up from his position against the wall and started pacing the small cell like he always did when he got worked up about something.He was probably going to start wearing tracks into the rock floor.

"You know," he said earnestly as Serena tracked the movements of his shadowy figure in the darkness."If I knew how old Cloud was, then I would know how old I was!Cloud was my best friend back in my old Shinra days, and we had the same birthday, too!"Blue eyes suddenly fastened on her."Isn't that the freakiest thing?" he asked.

Serena smiled up at him."That ain't no freaky thing, Zack.That is the Wheel of Fate spinning for you and yer friend."

"I wonder how Cloud is doing right now," Zack said, more to himself than to her.He suddenly began to do some sort of exercises, bending his knees and pumping his arms in sync with some military workout rhythm of his past.Serena often found that he did these sorts of things without even knowing he was doing them.Her heart ached for him: this young, passionate man torn from his life at such an early age and imprisoned down here like a rare item being kept under lock and key.She knew that no matter how much she tried to soothe him with her presence and her words, Zack was mostly left to deal with the phantoms of his past all by himself.She heard him mutter strange names while he slept; the mysterious "Cloud" was practically an old friend of hers.

She only hoped that her baby girl would be able to find this long lost friend of Zack's.

"Wonder if Baby Girl has found Cloud yet?" Zack suddenly asked, as if reading her mind, something that seemed to happen quite often, in fact.

"She'll find him, believe you me," Serena assured him firmly, folding her arms across her chest with absolute finality."She won't stop until she does."

"I worry about her, though," Zack muttered as he walked back up to the barred window and wrapped his hands around the bars.No matter how long he paced, he always returned to that accursed window, staring out into the unattainable hallway beyond, so close yet so far from some semblance of freedom.

"I worry too," Serena told him calmly."But she'll make it.We taught our baby girl well."

Zack suddenly laughed softly, a sound she hadn't heard in what seemed like forever.He whirled around and leaned casually against the rusted door, a coyness rising in his eyes that Serena had never seen before.A small smile played on his lips.

"_'Our'_ baby girl?" Zack quoted in amusement, blue eyes glittering affectionately at her."I guess that makes us husband and wife or something?"He smiled at her.

Serena dismissed this bit of silliness with a wave of her hand, trying not to think of how that brilliant smile had made her heart skip a beat like a lovesick little schoolgirl.

"Think whatever you want, Blue Eyes," she told him with an indulgent grin."But you get one thing straight: Serena Mayfair don't answer to no man."

Zack rolled his blue eyes."I don't doubt that for one minute, and you done gone and drilled that into Baby Girl's head.No man is gonna want to get near her on the streets."He suddenly paused and murmured, "Baby Girl…You know, Serena, we should have given her a name or something."

Serena shrugged."No matter what she calls herself, she always be my baby girl."

Zack looked at her thoughtfully."You'll make a good mother one day, Serena."

"I just hope I'm gonna get the opportunity to be a mama," she replied, basking on the warmth of the rare compliment."I got a feeling our days are limited, Blue Eyes.When they find out that Baby Girl is gone…"

"It's the torture room for us," Zack replied with stinging bitterness, spitting these harsh words at the darkness rather than at his companion."They'll try and make us tell them everything, but I ain't gonna do it, Serena.I'd rather them kill me and put an end to this misery than tell them where Baby Girl went."

"There ain't much we can tell them anyways," Serena added, tugging on one of her dark, spiraling curls thoughtfully."All we know is that she went topside and she's going to look for your friend."

"I wish I could of gone with her," Zack said, the pain evident in his voice."Someone has to take care of her.She ain't never seen the world outside of this goddamn cell.She needs someone to guide her!"Something cracked in his voice, and he suddenly whirled around and sent a punch flying at the cell's door, gloved fist striking the metal with a loud bang and creating echoes that sang melancholy arias all the way down the hall.

"I'm not supposed to be down here," Zack seethed, his voice strained and his entire body trembling."It feels like I've been down here my entire fucking life!I want…I want to be free, Serena!"

Serena rose quickly to her bare feet when she realized that Zack was about to go into one of his rages again.

_I have to stop him before he ends up screaming so loud that he brings the guards…_

She was just opening her mouth to try and calm him down when he suddenly grabbed the bars of the window with his strong hands and shook them violently, trying to dislodge them, something that he had done a million times before.And like the million times before, the bars refused to budge.

"You can't keep me down here forever!!!" he raged, talking to his unseen captors."I ain't gonna stay locked up in here like a goddamn animal for much longer!!!"

"Zack," Serena said softly, her heart aching for him as she crossed the small cell in two steps and reached to place her slender hands on his trembling back."Blue Eyes, come on.You just calm yourself down."

"I need to be free!" he exclaimed, but almost all the rage was gone from his voice.He sounded like nothing more than a panicked child now."God…I just wanna be free…"

"Oh, Zack," Serena whispered, feeling her heart breaking at the utter defeat she sensed was threatening to claim him.Tears stung her eyes as she slipped her arms around his waist from behind, feeling the strong muscles of his belly trembling underneath her touch.She pressed her face into the area between his shoulder blades and heard the steady pounding of his youthful heart racing underneath the thin fabric of his purple uniform.

"I'm gonna die in here," Zack whispered forlornly as he laid his head against the callous bars of the window with a loud thud."We're all gonna die in here…"

Serena felt these grim words fill the air like the rancid odor of a thing long dead and already decaying.For all her strength and wisdom, she could find no heartfelt phrase or verbal expression that would ease her companion's pain.She could find nothing, nothing at all.Words meant nothing to Zack; he was a man of action.Not for the first time, she wondered what kind of man he was before he was imprisoned down here, a caged bird robbed of its voice that could only watch in horror as the remnants of its hopeful song dissipated into the hungry darkness.

_He's right,_ she realized._He was never meant to be down here.He'll die if he stays down here much longer._

"Zack," she heard herself whisper, like the breath of spring trying to drive away the winter."My Zack.Is there nothing more I can do for you, Blue Eyes?"

"Escape with me," he murmured, voice barley audible."When the time comes, escape with me.I'm not going to leave without you, Serena."

A tear rolled out of one of her eyes, but in spite of herself, Serena smiled."Sure thing, Zack," she told him firmly, tightening her grip on him."You couldn't get rid of me even in you wanted to, Blue Eyes.We gonna get outta here one day, Zack.One day."

"One day," Zack whispered softly, those two words hanging in the air before the hungry darkness swallowed them up.

* * * * * * * * * * 

Reno took another drag of his cigarette and let his head droop back against the back of the chair.He held the smoke in his mouth for a few seconds before expelling the hazy poison into the air of the living room in one rank cloud that drifted up towards the ceiling before it was lost in the darkness.

Yawning sleepily, Reno stretched his arms over his head and arched his back to ease his strained muscles before letting his gaze drift to the figure of the girl named Rena, who was sleeping on the couch across the room from him.

Though Reno had thought that their whole introductory process in the kitchen earlier in the night would have made Rena trust him a little more, he soon learned that the little bit of familiarity they were starting to feel towards each other was not enough to dislodge her distrust of what seemed to be everything in the goddamn world.

He had spent half of the night trying to get her to change out of her "borrowed" clothes and into one of his shirts and on old pair of his pants.God, he swore that Rena had the tenacity of a grumpy mule.She had steadfastly refused the clothes he offered her, insisting again and again that what she had on was fine.He told her she looked like a "skanky slut" and quickly learned that such biting phrases had absolutely no effect on her.Every insult he threw at her, she either ignored or caught and flung it back at him.She had responded to his less-than-cordial description of her attire with, "Yeah, and look who picked up a skanky slut and brought her home."

_Women,_ Reno thought grumpily as he recalled how he had been at a loss for words after that sharp retort._I don't know why I freaking bother with the lot of them._

In the end, Reno didn't know how he had done it, but he had finally convinced her to change into the clothes he offered her.Of course, they were way too big on her slender frame even though Reno was by no means a big tub of lard.The white dress shirt gaped open at the collar and showed a section of her stomach since Reno had accidentally gotten the bottom of it caught in his car door and all the buttons except for two had popped off.The pants were also too wide for her way-too-slender waist, and Reno had spent precious minutes searching for a belt before giving up in frustration and taking the belt off of his own pants for her to use.

By then, he had been utterly and completely exhausted.Between arguing with Rena every five seconds and his previous battle with the Stalker, the night's adventures had been way too much for him.

_Your skills are deteriorating, Sasuki,_ he told himself as he took another drag of his cigarette._First you can't even take care of one freak in a trench coat, and now you pick up a girl who's a handful, even for you._

But in spite of his sour feelings, Reno allowed himself a small smile when he remembered how he had insisted that he would sleep on the couch while Rena slept in his room.She, of course, had been violently opposed to this (probably just because he suggested it) and had plopped herself down on the couch before he could do or say anything.More problems had arisen when Reno had sat down in the chair across the room to smoke a cigarette.Rena hadn't said anything, but she had glared at him relentlessly for what had to be fifteen minutes, apparently trying to give him the Evil Eye and make him drop his cigarette or something.

Fortunately, Reno had _only_ burned his goddamn hand when the cigarette fell out of his mouth just as he was starting to ask Rena what the hell she was staring at.As he cursed in pain, Rena, clearly satisfied that he had gotten his just desserts, rolled over calmly and, for all appearances, went to sleep, leaving a pissed-off Reno to smoke his cigarette alone in the dark.

Now that cigarette was nearing the end of its short lifespan as Reno took a final drag and snuffed out the butt in the overflowing ashtray on the windowsill behind him.The moonlight streaming in from the window behind him was blotted out by his slender figure as he rose to his feet, wincing at the ache in his limbs as he did so.Feeling ten years older than he really was, Reno crossed the night-darkened living room to where Rena was sleeping on the couch.

A strange emotion washed over Reno as he stood there, throwing his monstrous shadow over her sleeping figure.In the realm of the unconscious, Rena looked a lot younger than he had first assumed.He thought her to be anywhere from eighteen to twenty, but looking at her now, he realized that she might actually be a lot younger, maybe the same age as that brat on Cloud's team, Tuffie or Buffy or something like that.Rena's shrewd golden eyes and her formal, rigid way of speaking were what probably made her seem older then she actually was.

Sleep, however, had hidden the fire of those golden eyes and washed away all the mannerisms that Rena employed in her waking hours.She was lying on her side on the sagging couch, her face turned into the back of it with her legs half drawn up to her chest.Her hair was spread out behind her in a waterfall of dark fire that flowed over the edge of the couch and almost touched the floor.Her long dark eyelashes fluttered slightly, and Reno wondered what she was dreaming of.

"Always has to be the prettiest ones," he muttered under his breath before giving Rena's sleeping form one last glance and leaving her to slumber alone in the dark living room in a pool of cold moonlight.

In his dark, cramped room, Reno collapsed on his bed with a sigh, the bedsprings violently protesting the sudden change in weight.Not even caring that he was still in his clothes, Reno just lie there in the darkness, listening to sounds of his own breathing like he always did when he was sober enough to do so.In fact, tonight was one of the first nights in a long time that he wasn't drunk off his ass.And being that his mind was somewhat coherent, thoughts began running their courses through his head as his body started the process of shutting down.

_Damn car is broken…have to call Rude in the morning…did I lock the front door…feel a draft on my toes…that damn hole in my sock…wonder what Strife and his crew are doing now…gotta shower in the morning…damn, didn't eat supper…note to self: bum breakfast off Rude tomorrow…wonder if Rena will try to escape during the night…better not…I'll probably know if she does try to do it, anyways…she's so pretty…_

Reno's last thoughts before his consciousness faded were of Rena's slender figure lying on his ratty old couch like a goddess from another time, bathed in moonlight and wearing his clothes.Then he was gone into the abyss of dream, and he knew nothing else.

* * * * * * * * *

"I see," Reeve said as calmly as he could manage, but he still couldn't conceal some of the worry in his voice.He was just glad that the man on the other end of the phone couldn't see the rising tide of fear in his eyes or hear the ever-increasing pounding of his heart in his chest.

Not that the man would have noticed; he was too busy being terrified himself.

"Sir," Reeve urged with a practiced mixture of firmness and gentleness."Calm down.I'm going to get on this as soon as possible.You say the last place they struck was in the hill country above Kalm?…I see…alright…Everything was destroyed?Are you sure there were no survivors left?…Oh!Sir, I'm sorry!You're the only survivor, then?…Okay…How many of them were there?…Four?…Five?…It's alright, sir.I'm sure it was a very traumatic experience for you.You just stay right where you are in Kalm, where it's safe…No, I'm not going to let them destroy Kalm…Yes, I have some people in mind who can do something about this…You're welcome, sir.Take care now."

Reeve tried not to notice the trembling in his hand as he resettled the plastic phone on its cradle with a click that resounded through his empty office in Midgar.He rubbed his face with his hands, fingers grazing his beard and producing buzzing noises as he did so.He was worried, very worried.The harsh ceiling lights in his office seemed to beat down on the top of his dark head, and he could feel the beginnings of a headache starting to pound at his temples with a fervor that rivaled the throbbing of his worried heart in his chest.It was usually at times like this that he finally knuckled under the pressure of a hard workday and went home for the evening.

But not tonight.He had a feeling that he wouldn't be getting any sleep for a while…

Instead of getting up, turning off the lights, and grabbing his coat, Reeve remained seated in his swivel chair behind his desk and reached for his phone again.Quickly, he dialed a number that he had long ago committed to memory.

A sleepy voice picked up on the other end.

"Tifa?" Reeve asked."Yes, it's Reeve.I'm sorry to have woken you…Could you put Cloud on the line, please?…Yeah, we've got problems…"


	7. Emerald Destiny

Emerald Destiny

**_Emerald Destiny_**

**_ _**

The dream was always the same.

Reno stood on the beach in some unknown place between dream and reality, feeling the sea breezes caress his face as he watched the setting sun in the distance.The fading light of day painted the sky in millions of fiery hues, their blazing fury trying to burn away the dark that was rapidly descending on the world as the moon rose to seat itself on its celestial throne.He was conscious of the sand beneath his bare feet and wind playing gently with his ponytail, but what truly merited his attention was the vanishing rays of sunlight over the horizon that were quickly loosing their battle with the darkness.The struggling remnants of the sun's rays danced across his skin, planting their fiery kisses on his pale face.The gently rolling sea glittered in the light that remained, enjoying it before the ocean seemed to suck the sun into its watery embrace.

And as the sun descended into the night sea, Reno stood on the beach and waited.Waited for "it" to come.

The wind whistling down the beach suddenly picked up considerably, whipping his hair into a violent frenzy and trying to tear his blue suit jacket from his narrow shoulders.Sand came streaming down the length of the beach, grit striking the side of his face while other particles tried to worm their way underneath his collar.Reno squinted his glowing aquamarine eyes slightly, unconcerned with these petty distractions.He was only focused on the waves of the ocean.

From the sea, "it" emerged at last.The green beast surged out of the dark waters, moonlight pooling on its wet flesh that wasn't really flesh, but metal.Water streamed down its sides, and dozens of waves rushed away from its gigantic form as if in terror, running far and fast until they were shattered by the solidness of the packed sand on the shore.Water swirled around Reno's bare feet and splashed him in the face, but he neither noticed nor cared.He craned his neck back in rapt fascination of the beast that towered above his head until it seemed to touch the sky itself.

"Emerald Weapon," he whispered.

Though he wasn't sure if the Weapon had ears or not, or if it even had a brain, it somehow heard and comprehended his whisper for Reno suddenly felt its attention come to bear on him: a small, tiny human being standing in the shadow of the majesty of this creature born from the Planet itself.

Then it spoke.

"I AM EMERALD," it said, voice deep and timeless, making Reno's head throb with the sheer magnitude of the mighty sound.

"I can see that," he said softly, not daring to use sarcasm in the presence of such a creature."Why am I dreaming of you?I never dream of you…"

The Emerald Weapon spoke again, but this time it used a language Reno couldn't understand.

"What?" he asked in confusion."I don't understand…"

The Weapon gave a thundering response to Reno's bafflement, and again Reno was frustrated to hear the great emerald creature speaking in that strange tongue again.He had a feeling Emerald Weapon was trying to tell him something, but for all the life in him, he couldn't understand the language the thing was speaking in.

"I don't understand what you're saying!" Reno cried as the wind seemed to tear at him with more fury than before."Speak English!Please!"

This apparently displeased the Weapon because it suddenly lifted one of its massive claws and, as Reno watched in shock, dipped it into the water and sent a humongous tsunami flying right at the shore and the insignificant mortal man standing alone on the sands.

Reno barely had time to fling up his hands as the watery wall filled his vision and then slammed into his body, swirling around him like out of control dancers waltzing on a boundless floor.He felt himself being flung left and right by the water's embrace, and he shut his eyes tightly even though he knew it would do him no good.His heart was thundering out of control in his chest as the waves wrapped him in their arms completely, whispering to him – whispering words that he could almost understand…

Something told him to open his eyes, but when he did, he found that he wasn't sinking to the bottom of the ocean like he had originally thought he would.Instead, he was surrounded by liquid that glowed a fluorescent blue-green and carried with it millions of whispering voices.

"Lifestream," he whispered with a voice that wasn't really a voice at all.

Then the voices slammed into him.Young, old, deep, high, whispering, screaming, they all began to speak at once until they became one horrible symphony that tore at his sanity, trying to rip it free from his skull.He heard the voice of an old man speaking of a daughter long dead, and a teenage girl telling him of a lover lost in the fury of a war that Reno had only read about in the history books.Reno tried desperately to hold onto one of these voices, something to keep him adhered to the sanity that was rapidly slipping away from him. 

But it was no use.The voices were unnaturally persistent, and their combined might rolled over him like a wave seeking to drown him.But suddenly, he heard the voice of Emerald Weapon rising above the rest…

"LEARN," was all it said."LEARN."

"Learn what?!" Reno screamed, but he couldn't even hear his own voice above the din.Panic seized him, and he felt himself start to drown in the sheer multitude of the voices.He was sinking into the depths of the Lifestream.

"Reno!" a voice suddenly cried, and for second, he thought that the Weapon was calling him again, but this wasn't the voice of the green behemoth.No, this new voice was feminine and husky, calling to him like she had known him for years, and Reno felt himself reaching out for this creature with all his being.

A hand suddenly fastened on his wrist, and the voices faded away into a soft whispering, growing fainter and fainter until they had vanished completely, leaving Reno's soul feeling raw and exposed, as if it had just been through fighting some great battle that it had barely won.

"Reno," the woman's voice whispered again.

He had apparently shut his eyes sometime during the voices' onslaught, and now he opened them to see none other than Rena floating in the Lifestream slightly above him, her hair billowing behind her in dark cloud of black and red fire, her shirt – or rather, his shirt – stained a blazing emerald blue-green by the stream of souls all around them.Her golden eyes gleamed gently down at him, and for the first time, Reno realized that the luminescence of her eyes and the Lifestream were almost identical.Natural, brilliant and terrible all at once.

One of her small, delicate hands was locked firmly around his wrist.It was her that had stopped him from drowning, her that had chased away the voices that had been threatening to steal his sanity away.

_Rena…_

"Reno!" she cried again, only she wasn't moving her mouth.She just floated there above him peacefully, smiling at him a little.

"W-What?" he asked.

"Reno!Wake up!"

His eyes widened."Wake up?!What the hell?!"

The dream quickly vanished around him.Rena's hand holding his wrist gave away to a pair of hands resting on his back and shaking him slightly.The brilliant and horrible Lifestream dissipated into nothing and a cool darkness took its place.Someone was shaking him and calling his name.

"Reno!Get up!" Rena cried, her voice echoing through his empty room.

Reno's eyes snapped open immediately, and he rolled instinctively away from the warmth of her hands, sinking into the center of his lumpy mattress as the worn bedsprings creaked in amusement.

"Rena?" he muttered hoarsely, rolling onto his side and squinting up at her in the darkness.She was standing beside his bed, peering down at him with golden eyes that were even more unnerving to look at in absolute darkness than they were in the light.

"It's me," she said softly, clasping her pale hands together in front of her.

"I can see that," Reno said grumpily, sitting up in bed and rubbing his eyes, noting that he had fallen asleep in his clothes…again.So much for looking decent for work tomorrow."What the hell are you doing in my room?" he asked Rena."Come in here to seduce me?"

Rena sniffed, her eyes narrowing."Hardly," she said flatly."You called me here."

Reno blinked in confusion."What?" he mumbled grumpily.

_Did I call out her name in my sleep?No, I don't think so…_

"You called me here," Rena repeated patiently, fiddling absently with the hem of her too-large shirt."You were having a nightmare."

"And I called your name?" Reno asked dubiously, but then he suddenly remembered an ethereal figure of Rena floating above him in the Lifestream, holding onto his wrist, preventing him from drowning…Had he called her name then?

Rena suddenly shook her dark head, absently brushing away strands of hair as they flopped into her face."You didn't call me here with your voice," she told him."Your heart called me here, to wake you from the nightmare."

Reno's eyebrow lifted so far that it threatened to disappear into his hairline.He gave Rena a hard stare, looking into her golden eyes and searching for any indication that she might be lying to him.But all he managed to see in those honey-colored orbs was an innocent, heartbreaking sincerity.Poor, crazy girl actually believed what she was saying.

Reno snorted."Hmph.Whatever you say, sister."

"I take it you don't believe me?" Rena asked evenly.

Flopping back against his lumpy mattress, Reno responded, "So you're some kind of psychic or something?" 

"Come again?"

"A psychic," Reno repeated impatiently, studying her shadow-wrapped figure and trying not to think of the fact that she was a beautiful young woman, standing in his room, next to his bed, looking down at him."You can hear people's thoughts and all that crap?"

"No," she replied calmly."Just yours."

A scowled darkened Reno's face."You hear my thoughts?" he demanded sharply, not at all pleased with the idea of someone poking around his mind and screwing him up like those goddamn Jenova cells screwed up Strife and the other specimens.

But, much to his relief, Rena shook her head."I don't hear your thoughts, and even if I could, I wouldn't listen to them."

"Why not?" Reno couldn't resist asking."If I could get inside people's heads and see their every thought and desire, then I would sure as hell do it."

"Well, unlike you, I seem to have a lingering respect for the privacy of others."

Reno deflected the insult with a mirthless laugh and rolled over, putting his back to her."Whatever," he muttered."Thanks for waking me up, baby.Now go back to sleep so I can get some shut-eye."

Rena didn't reply, but Reno hadn't really been expecting one from her.He listened to her leave the room quietly, feeling an odd sense of disappointment settle in his heart.He had been hoping for some odd reason that she might lay down next to him and stay with him until the dawn came.He wouldn't have done anything to (or with) her, but it would have been nice just to have her there, a bit of warmth next to him.It got so cold in his room sometimes.

_Dammit, Reno,_ he berated himself, rolling onto his back and covering his head with one of his sad-looking pillows._You better stop being all glazed-eye-stare over this girl.But, but she's also as feisty as hell!_

A smile spread across his face as he recalled her indirectly scolding him a minute ago for not respecting other's privacy.

If only she knew.

If only she knew about his past, then she would know that there was no such thing as privacy when one works for the Turks.They knew every intimidate detail about his life down to the women he had been with and the people he had killed as a street rat.Reno could hide nothing from Shinra, but that was the way the tyrannical organization had meant it to be.No one ever left Shinra Inc. voluntarily.They couldn't.Because the corporation had become their lives.In all reality, they ceased to be considered people at all.Shinra's money-hungry ways and ruthless methods of operating devoured its employees and subordinates whole, making them lose themselves and their purposes.

And, three months ago, Reno had been one of those mindless machines, a Turk – the President's personal lapdog, biting when and where he was told, never asking questions or daring to wonder if what he was doing was ethical, for he knew in his heart that it wasn't.

What a wonderful life it had been.Ignorance is bliss, after all, and Reno had become ignorant of his own free will, surrendering himself to all the wonders and pleasures that life with Shinra had to offer him.To a young man who had known nothing but running for his life and barely surviving by the skin of his teeth, being a member of the assassin/bodyguards the Turks had been paradise in its purest form.

It was only now, three months after the fall of Shinra and the defeat of the Turks, that Reno was finally forced to abandon his state of ignorance and face the horrible reality that he was nothing without Shinra.As soon as the organization fell and he tumbled blindly from its deteriorating womb, it was as if he had lost everything.What did he have now?A crappy apartment owned by a bitchy landlady who hated his guts, a car that was now riddled with bullet holes, a job that paid half of his former salary, no money in his pockets, no food in his refrigerator, no purpose in his life.

It was with these dark thoughts that Reno finally drifted off into a fitful sleep, one blessedly devoid of dreams.

His own internal alarm clock awoke him about an hour later, and he realized that he had fallen asleep with the pillow over his head and was now in dire need of breathable air.

"Ugh," Reno declared, chucking the limp pillow to the floor, where it landed right next to a pair of discarded dress pants.The light from the world outside was already seeping in through his window and burning away the shadows in his room.Reno made a face and shut his eyes against this light.

Groaning, he rolled onto his belly and, without even opening his eyes, reached for the phone on the floor beside his bed, cursing as he knocked it off the cradle and had to fumble around for it on the carpet.Lifting it to his ear, he opened his eyes long enough to punch in a number that he had learned to dial in record time.Then he plopped his head back down on his lumpy mattress and listened to the ringing on the other end, realizing belatedly that he had no pillow since he had booted it to the floor.

After two rings, a deep voice picked up on the other end."Yes?"

"Rude!" Reno exclaimed, his voice still hoarse from sleep."Hey, how's it goin'?"

"I'll be there in ten minutes," Rude said calmly.

Reno grinned; Rude knew that he would only call his cell phone this early in the morning for one reason."Thanks, buddy," he said."Oh…and make sure you have enough money to feed my face, too!"

"Sure thing," Rude deadpanned."Rude out," he said formally, and clicked off.

_It's been three months, and he still can't shake all that formality,_ Reno thought with a grin as he hung up the phone.Groaning, the meager sleep he had gotten not nearly sufficing, he forced himself to swing his feet off the side of the bed and rise to a sitting position.

After waiting for the room to stop spinning, he pulled in a deep breath and yelled, "Rena!!!!"

_She better not have run out…_

His worries were short-lived, however, because Rena suddenly poked her head into his room, one dark eyebrow lifted slightly.Her clothes were rumpled from sleeping on the couch, and she didn't look very happy at being summoned to his room like a lowly servant.

"What is it?" she asked, voice reflecting the annoyance in her eyes.

Reno gave her a maddening grin."Nothing.Just wanted to make sure you were still here.You can go away now."

She glared daggers at him, staying stubbornly rooted in the doorway as he stood up and stretched languidly, arching his back like a cat and exposing a portion of his well-muscled stomach.

"Are you just gonna stand there like a dumbass and watch me all day?" Reno demanded of Rena, yawning and not even bothering to cover his mouth."I'm gonna take a shower, and unless you want to join me, you better haul your ass outta here."

Rena's eyes narrowed as she glanced dubiously around."You don't shower in your bedroom, do you?"

Reno snorted, making a face at her."No, retard."

A mischievous thought suddenly crossed his mind, bringing a lewd grin to his face._No, but I get undressed in my bedroom._

Without warning, Reno suddenly grabbed the hem of his shirt and yanked it over his head.Rena gave a startled gasp, and he extricated himself from his garment just in time to see her literally _running_ down the hall and disappearing around the corner, back toward the living room.

_Gotta hand it to you, Rena.You're the first girl who actually RAN AWAY when I started to get undressed._

Laughing, Reno tossed the shirt on his bed and strode towards the shower.

Five minutes later, he emerged, sopping wet and cursing because all the hot water had mysteriously disappeared.Damn his rotten, cheap apartment building!Damn his rotten, cheap landlady and his rotten, cheap neighbors!Hot-water hoggers.Hell, while he was at it, damn his rotten, cheap LIFE!

Grabbing his old shirt from the bed, he dried his hair with it while yanking a suit and shirt blindly from the closet, putting them on in record time and grabbing an elastic band from his (mostly empty) chest of drawers and securing the lower half of his slightly damp hair in a ponytail.He snatched his gun and nightstick from the same chest of drawers and was about to pat himself on the back for being ready _way_ ahead of time when he suddenly felt a draft on his feet.Looking down, he realized that he was still parading around in his socks.

_Okay,_ he thought, looking around his room._Shoes!By the front door!I'll just make Rena bring them to me.You know, piss her off some more._

Grinning at the thought, Reno was about to holler for her when he suddenly heard a scream coming from his living room.All laughter evaporating in an instant, Reno unholstered his nightstick and was running down the hall when Rena suddenly blew past him in a flurry of motion, heading towards the sanctity of his bedroom, leaving the smell of fear in her wake.

Reno was about to call after her when he suddenly heard heavy footsteps echoing just around the corner.Pressing himself up against the wall, he began to charge up his nightstick, the business end of it trained with assassin ruthlessness at the corner, ready to blow away whatever was prowling around his apartment and scaring Rena.

To his utter surprise, none other than Rude suddenly poked his head around the corner.

Reno's mouth fell open."Rude?!" he cried.

Rude lifted an eyebrow so that it rose over the top of his sunglasses."Is it safe to come out?" he asked dryly."Or will I get my head blown off?"

Reno shut off the electricity churning in his weapon and shoved the nightstick back in its holster."It's fine, Rude," he said tiredly as his friend rounded the corner calmly, looking prim and proper, as always.

"Was that girl one of your 'friends'?" Rude asked flatly.

A scowl darkened Reno's face."No!" he declared, whirling around and stomping back down the hall to his room."She's just the biggest wuss in the world!Rena, get back out here!"

He stormed into his room to find Rena hiding in the farthest, darkest corner of his room, looking like she was trying to disappear into the cracked wall.The only thing that ruined the whole vulnerable thing she had going on was the deep scowl she had on her face, which made her look more angry than frightened.

"Your friend startled me," she said tersely, before Reno could go off on a rant.

Reno rolled his eyes as he heard Rude walk up behind him quietly."Whatever," he snapped at Rena."I think Rude should be insulted.He isn't THAT scary!"Turning around, Reno draped his arm over one of Rude's broad shoulders."See?He's my friend."He gave Rena a mocking grin.

She just continued to stare at the two blue-suited figures in the doorway."You have a friend?" she suddenly asked Reno.

Reno glared at her."Bet your ass I do._Two_ friends, to be exact!"

"Oh," Rena said quietly."I had two friends, too."

Surprised, Reno lifted an eyebrow."Really?Where are they now?"

Shifting her weight from foot to foot, Rena looked like she regretted saying anything in the first place."Where I left them," she ventured warily.

"And that would be…?"

Rena folded her arms across her chest and turned her face away, silently telling him that the conversation was over.

"Whatever," Reno muttered, rolling his eyes."Anyways, Rude this is Rena.Rena, this is Rude."

Rude nodded at the girl politely."Good morning, Rena."

Rena blinked in surprise, not use to be treated courteously after hanging out with Reno."G-Good morning," she replied.

"Okay," Reno said, grabbing his sunglasses from his chest of drawers and using them to hold some of his wild hair back from his eyes."Now that everyone's friends, can we please leave?Rena, get out of that corner and come on."

"You're taking me with you?" Rena asked in confusion.

"You're taking her with you?" Rude asked simultaneously.

Reno turned and gave his two companions withering glares."Are you two gonna give me crap about this?Rude, the first thing you need to learn about this girl is that she'll fly the coop if given half a chance.If I left her alone here, as soon as my ass was out the door, she'd probably be climbing out the back window.Now, hurry your asses up!"

Ten minutes later saw the trio cruising down the streets in Rude's convertible, which was the exact same design as Reno's, minus the bullet holes, of course.President Shinra had loved conformity amongst his Turks, that he did.After much arguing and bickering, Reno had literally scooped Rena up in his arms and dumped the struggling girl in the front seat next to Rude, much to her annoyance.She seemed to be a little afraid of Rude, for some odd reason.Anyhow, Reno had received a scratch on his chin for all his troubles, but he wanted to make sure that she wasn't going to jump out of the car or anything crazy like that.

"Rena, remind to cut those claws of yours later," he grumbled from his spot in the backseat.

Rena spun around and gave him a dark glare before facing forward again, looking distinctly uncomfortable.

Reno grinned and kicked the back of her seat, earning himself another glare."You know, sister, if looks could kill, I would be six feet under by now."

"What a pity that would be," Rena snapped, the roaring wind sending some of her long hair fluttering around her head.

"Reno," Rude suddenly spoke up as he merged onto the freeway on the way to the corporation they worked as bodyguards for."You can't take this girl to work with you, you know."

"Of course I know!"

"Then just where do you plan on taking her?" Rude asked, glancing dubiously at the fuming Rena in the passenger seat."She's a bit old for day care."

Reno grinned."Don't sweat it, Rude, I got this all figured out!We're gonna leave her with a good friend of ours."

Rude's sharp mind caught on immediately."Oh no…"

"It's Elena's day off!" Reno exclaimed, leaning forward and punching Rude on the shoulder."I'm sure she won't mind taking care of our feisty, bitchy little friend here!"

That line earned him a glare of apocalyptic proportions.

* * * * * * * * * *

The woman stood on the rise of the hill as the sun began its ascent to its throne on the top of the sky.Rays of pure light blazed around her slender figure, allowing those approaching only a shadowy glimpse of the features that made up her youthful face.A cheerful morning breeze ruffled her golden blond hair, sending it whispering around her narrow shoulders, but the cold, dark expression on her face never wavered, refusing to greet the coming day with the same euphoria that the whole goddamn world was doing.

Electric blue eyes that held the unmistakable glow of Mako in their azure depths watched as the three dark-haired figures coming up the hill stopped beneath her. 

"Well?" she asked impatiently.

"She's not here," the girl with her hair done up in a plethora of tiny braids said flatly."Kamari, Fatima and I did an extensive scan of the village, and the girl isn't here."

"You're sure?" the blond-haired girl demanded, her eyes narrowing as she gazed off at the sleeping mountain village at the bottom of the hill.

"Jinn's always sure," Kamari snapped."Her magic is infallible, Minerva."

Minerva sighed, not at all pleased with the results of their fruitless searches."Very well," she said."Kamari, Jinn…burn it."

Jinn lifted a graceful eyebrow."Is that really necessary?She's not here so why burn the village?"

Minerva glanced at her."You're choosing _now_ to ask me that question?We've burned every village so far, and _now_ it's starting to bother you?"

Jinn shook her head, braids settling around her slender shoulders."It's not burning the villages that bothers me, Minerva.It's killing the villagers that I don't approve of."

"You don't worry about the villagers," Minerva ordered, her eyes hard."That's Kamari's job.You just make sure that this place is reduced to nothing but ashes."

Jinn nodded reluctantly."I see."

Without another word, she turned and started descending the hill to the village again, her cousin Kamari following close behind, unsheathing her Wutainese katanas as she went.The two girls said nothing, to each other or to their two friends on top of the hill.

"They grow weary of all this killing," Fatima observed, her brown eyes pensive as she stared after the two cousins: Jinn the mage and Kamari the ninja.

"Once we find the girl," Minerva said softly."There will be no more of this senseless killing."

"Someone escaped," Fatima said suddenly.

"What?" Minerva turned to her surprise.

"From the last village," Fatima clarified, a troubled look on her face as she listened to Jinn start yelling incantations for the Fire spell."A man escaped to the village of Kalm."

"Damn it," Minerva cursed."Kamari's getting sloppy.We can't have people escaping left and right."

"It's was bound to happen sooner or later," Fatima commented, watching as pillars of white-hot flames began to devour the village beneath them."Kamari may be a great ninja, but she can only take on so many at once, and the last village was rather large.Too many to kill."

Rare worry creased Minerva's brow, but her eyes were cool and calm as she gazed at the flames licking towards the sky like blood-covered fingers trying to pierce the heavens above.Her sensitive ears detected the screams of the villagers as Kamari went to work in the heart of their happy home, but these sounds of terror didn't faze Minerva.She had been trained to ignore such things.

"Do you think that this man will bring problems down on our heads?" Minerva asked Fatima softly.

"Yes," the shorter girl replied without hesitation."The Fates have already spoken to me."

"And?" Minerva asked her dark-haired companion."Exactly what problems will we be having?"

Fatima turned to stare up at her leader and friend."AVALANCHE has been notified of our actions," she told Minerva softly."It is only a matter of time before they band together and come to stop us."

Minerva's electric blue eyes widened in shock."AVALANCHE?" she whispered.

Fatima nodded solemnly.

Worry still marring her features, Minerva turned her Mako blue gaze to the burning village at the bottom of the hill.Jinn's Fire spells had already swallowed half of the houses and were moving onto the others with hungry eagerness, flames plunging into houses and searing everything in their paths.Minerva knew that Jinn's magic was powerful enough to annihilate the village in a matter of minutes, but the fact that one man had slipped past Kamari's guard in the last village was gnawing at her conscience.She didn't blame her friend for the error; chances were that Kamari didn't even know that she had missed the one survivor.Minerva and her friends would probably still be unaware of the man's presence if it hadn't been for Fatima's psychic abilities.But now that she knew that AVALANCHE had been alerted to what they were doing, she couldn't allow for any more mistakes.

Fatima jerked in surprise when Minerva suddenly moved away from her side and began to descend the hill."Hey!Minerva, where are you going?!"

Without looking back, Minerva replied."I'm going to go and make sure no one escapes this time.You just make sure that if someone manages to get out of the village, you cut them down.No more mistakes, Fatima.No more mistakes…"


End file.
